Historic streetcars

[Cadenza]

Those "trolleys" you refer to had not changed a whit until Katrina. The red ones were on a new line. The old ones still ran along St. Charles to the Quarter and back past RiverBend on Carrollton. But I have never heard any New Orleanian call them a "trolley". Trolleys in my understanding are like the cars in San Francisco, not powered by electricity overhead like the ones in NO. Only the tourists call them trolleys.

I hope they are NEVER retired and replaced with new ones, even if they are built to look the same. They wouldn't BE the same.

[rhertz]

Cadenza, I had not until now realized that the "trolleys" in Shreveport in the late 50's were the same as the "streetcars" of New Orleans. Thanks for pointing that out. Here in Shreveport, I guess it was around the mid 60's when the diesel city buses displaced the trolleys although the guy wires remained overhead for years as I recall. I had all but forgotten about them until your thread brought back old childhood memories.

LOL, I am not surprised that we "yankees" up here in Shreveport would call streetcars something different than our southern neighbors. It won’t be the first time this has happened. ;-) I am also fascinated by the various regional pronunciations. Down south they seem to say Lou-ze-anna while up here we sometimes say Lou-wez-ze-anna. Or for New Orleans itself, I hear New-wall-ins, Naw-lins, New Ore-lee-anns, New Ore-leens, and New Ore-lens. I doubt any other city has so much “dialect”.

Re: I hope they are NEVER retired and replaced with new ones, even if they are built to look the same. They wouldn't BE the same.

I respect what you are saying. My point was overly generalized in that keeping something in service for a long time places some wear and tear on the vehicle, and while under continuous maintenance, at some point every part on the vehicle would have undergone replacement due to excessive wear. (in theory) Over time it becomes a new vehicle anyway to some degree, and I hope they save the original parts for historical preservation. If any original parts are ever retired for historical preservation (display in a museum) for whatever reason, then I think they should replicate them EXACTLY in order to keep the vehicle going rather than retire the service which would be sad.