Interesting Green Line Trolley Pictures

Not sure but CRail might chime in. The LRV could be 3424 going to Seashore.

In the early, early days there was a switch about here, when the street was narrower, for cars turning left to continue up Centre Street.

Jamaica Plain artist sketches MBTA stops, explores city

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I read interesting as unusual and this is something we've all seen and done. Trying to upload an attachment. I call it Expectant. Jan '12.

Not quite the Green Line,but certainly the Grand Daddy of the Green Line, pictured is a nice West End Street Railway Company single trucked 16 foot box Railway Post Office car when Boston transit provided that service. According to my WEStRy Clearance Outline, this was designated a "new" series of mail car, dated May 1, 1896. There were three of them and West End built them. I found it interesting that there are no portable headlight mounts on the dash. Anybody out there know when RPO service ended ? Was it WE or with BERy ? I know that the MTA didn't do it. When you think about it, with the network of track on all main streets, there wasn't really anywhere that a streetcar couldn't deliver in the city. Must have been exciting for children to see the cars around Christmas time as the snow flakes fell and imagining what presents the little cars might hold for the kids to be unwrapping soon. A lot more magical than seeing Dad on his key pad. Nice shot of the West End logo on the side of the car. Imagine trying to draw that out !

3rdrail wrote:Not quite the Green Line,but certainly the Grand Daddy of the Green Line, pictured is a nice West End Street Railway Company single trucked 16 foot box Railway Post Office car when Boston transit provided that service. According to my WEStRy Clearance Outline, this was designated a "new" series of mail car, dated May 1, 1896. There were three of them and West End built them. I found it interesting that there are no portable headlight mounts on the dash. Anybody out there know when RPO service ended ? Was it WE or with BERy ? I know that the MTA didn't do it. When you think about it, with the network of track on all main streets, there wasn't really anywhere that a streetcar couldn't deliver in the city. Must have been exciting for children to see the cars around Christmas time as the snow flakes fell and imagining what presents the little cars might hold for the kids to be unwrapping soon. A lot more magical than seeing Dad on his key pad. Nice shot of the West End logo on the side of the car. Imagine trying to draw that out !

Wow, this would have been a good Quiz?

According to O. R. Cummings "Street Cars of Boston Vol. 6" pg. 84, they made it into BERy service but do to lack of profit the service was ended on August 15, 1915. Also I think there is a headlight already in place, painted to match the dasher color so it is not that distinctive. Hint: look closely in the space between the Untied States and Mail words.

JoeD

Good catch Joe ! I see it now - West End did a nice job in constructing a nice, flush headlight on the dash. Thank you !
Here's a PCC over one of the inspection pits inside the old Reservoir Car Barn.

A friend was nice enough to send along a pic of our West End 1299, now an El car at the Bartlett Car Barn. Notice that the photo was shot at the moment of a humongous earth quake as a giant fissure has just opened up on the Belgium Block ! Hahaha!!! Got ya ! Just a break on the glass negative (before digital). Our car has seen some plywood blocking off over the years since it's West End days. Notice that it still carries its West End logo !

3rdrail wrote:Our car has seen some plywood blocking off over the years since it's West End days. Notice that it still carries its West End logo !

It has acquired a road hardened look. As for the plywood blocking, the second photo is of the opposite end, there may have never been a door there. My reasoning is the mail compartment is supposed to be secured with limited access, UPS rules.

JoeD

3rdrail wrote:Notice that it still carries its West End logo !

I'm not convinced that is a West End Street Railway logo (though I admit I don't know what one looked like). The letterboard was changed to reflect the car transferring from WESRy to BERy ownership; if that was indeed a West End logo, I'm certain it would have been changed as well. To these eyes, the intertwined letters look like U S M... United States Mail, I presume!

EDIT: OK, bonus question. what DID the WESRy logo look like?

I think that you're right J. I was having a problem with the letters also. As you said, it's probably the U.S.P.S. RPO "U.S.Mail Service" crest instead. Here's the first West End Street Railway Co. RPO car which preceeded the one up above. As you can see, this car was far more open and less secure, closing off which you can see was the trend with each modification as the cars went along.

This isn't a photo... but it's about interesting things on the Green Line:

Why do they call train numbers in the 3900's over the radio? Like Train 3913, purely for example's sake. The Type 8's are 3800's only. There are no 3900 cars, and thus should be no 3900 trains?

I don't actually know the answer to this, but I would be willing to guess that they have a system in place that identifies a specific Line, Route, and Deviations. They are not as much calling the car but the space that the car occupies so the number always remains the same whether it be a 7 or an 8.

I believe the 3900s are radio callsigns for the inspectors. IIRC, they used to be assigned radio numbers lower in the 3000s (3400s or 3500s, I think), but their numbers were reassigned when cars with the same numbers arrived. They'll get new numbers again if the Type 9s get placed in the 3900 series.

Here we see the 1299 under BERy somewhere around Back Bay I think, possibly Copley Square. Some sort of interchange is taking place here between the El guys and postal crew. This is the West End "New" car and is now vestibuled.