St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line, 1835

National Historic Mechanical St. Charles Avenue American Society of Engineering Landmark Streetcar Line, 1835 Mechanical Engineers Carrollton Streetcar Shop Regional Transit Authority New Orleans, Louisiana December 9, 1984 St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line, 1835 railroad stops in 1835 abandoned route present route and switch The St. Charles Street Car line is the passenger route “to use an English inven- pany, and were 4’ 8½” English standard oldest continuously operating street rail- tion, the steam powered Locomotive, gauge. The cars were pulled by horses, way in the world and was one of the first rolling on a road of iron rails.” As the which used a wooden walkway between passenger railroads in the United States. tracks crossed each plantation boundary, the rails. The electric streetcars now operating on there was a slight curve to keep the line Two steam locomotives, the “New Or- the route are typical of the transportation parallel with the river, forming a huge leans” and the “Carrollton” were ordered that played a major role in American cities crescent shaped route. As New Orleans from England, probably from Benjamin in the first part of this century. grew, new streets followed the curve of Hick & Company in Bolton, Lan- The line was incorporated as the New the railroad and river, rather than the castershire. The “Fulton,” a 2-2-0 type Orleans and Carrollton Rail Road Com- usual grid of most American cities; thus with outside inclined cylinders, had been pany (N.O. & C.R.R.) February 9, 1833. New Orleans was called “Crescent City.” built for the Pontchartrain railroad in Capitalization was $300,000, with $100 According to the Street Railway Jour- 1834, and a second “New Orleans” for the shares payable in $5 installments. The nal of May 1894, the New Orleans and N.O. & C.R.R. in 1837. third railroad built in the Mississippi Carrollton railroad was “the pioneer Construction of the roadbed went River valley, it was conceived primarily as street railway in the city...but not put in apace, and there was a special notice a passenger line. operation until 1834, only three years printed on the front page of the Bee news- It was preceded by the Pontchartrain after the building of the Fourth Avenue, paper throughout the month of August. Rail Road Company, incorporated in New York line, which was the first street “The New Orleans and Carrollton Rail 1830, which ran for five miles between the railway proper in the world. The first Road Company, see with regret, that not- Mississippi River at New Orleans and a section of the New Orleans & Carrollton withstanding the police regulations of the pier on Lake Pontchartrain at Milneburg, Rail Road open for traffic extended from Parish of Jefferson, a large number of and the West Feliciana Rail Road, incor- Canal on St. Charles Avenue to the corner animals are allowed to run loose upon porated in 1831, which eventually ran be- of Jackson Avenue, and the rolling stock their road, which have already caused and tween St. Francisville/Bayou Sara and consisted of double deck cars which were are still causing considerable damage to Woodville, Mississippi. drawn by two horses tandem.” the road and the ditches on each side of it. Unlike the other two railroads, the On January 13, 1834, the horse car line Being on the eve of starting the Locomo- N.O. & C.R.R. did not have a separate, to the town of Lafayette officially began tive, it is apprehended that frequent acci- private, right-of-way, but shared the service along St. Charles Avenue from dents will result from this abuse if not streets with carts, drays, carriages, horses, Canal Street. Lafayette (now between Fe- immediately put a stop to. .” and pedestrians. The trains were restricted licity and Harmony Streets) was the resi- The company stated its right to take all to four miles an hour within city limits, dential suburb of the Americans who had stray cattle found on its railroad and hold and only a single track was permitted on settled there in the 30 years since the Loui- them at its depots for claim by the owners Baronne Street. siana Purchase. of the animals. The notice also said that “it The railroad was part of a sophisticated The 1¾ mile route was on Baronne, is expressly forbidden to travel upon the land development scheme. The real estate Triton Walk (now Howard), through road, either on horseback or in any vehi- promoters realizing the need for “a cer- Tivoli (Lee) Circle, Naiades (now St. cle whatsoever.” tain speedy and easy transportation” to Charles Avenue) and along Jackson Ave- New Orleans if their new town was to nue to the river. The first cars were leased develop, initiated the construction of a from the Pontchartrain Railroad Com- Earliest illustration of a N.O. & C.R.R. train, in front of the Carrollton Hotel. Drawing by C. Rothaas, Dec. 16, 1835. New Orleans Notorial Archives, Book 91, Folio 10. On August 8, 1835, the True American newspaper mentioned that “the steam cars began running on the Carrollton Rail Road, on Thursday, and will run again this day. In a week, we understand, the road will be completed to Carrollton. The company expects a new engine out shortly. The price of passage is fixed at twenty-five cents.” However, the official opening was de- layed until late September 1835. A month later, the Bee had some con- structive criticism: “More punctuality must be observed in the hours of depar- ture... It would be no harm also to attend to the flue of the engine; so that sparks might not burn the dresses of the “The new lessees will abolish the use of source of motive power other than the passengers.” Apparently sparks were a major problem, because a year later the locomotives and substitute horse cars, of expensive horse or mule car. However, which sixty have been ordered from Phil- Pontchartrain railroad offered to “pay the various expeirments were tried. The first adelphia. The lessees intend to apply to sum of 500 dollars, to the inventor or was an overhead-cable-powered railroad. projector of a machine or plan to prevent the City Council for the privilege of lay- ing a double track on Baronne Street,” the escape of sparks from the chimney of according to the Daily Southern Star of Overhead Cable locomotive engines, burning pine wood, April 11, 1866. and which shall be adapted for use of the According to an 1887 English book, A The added trackage from Canal Street Treatise Upon Cable or Rope Traction as Company.” Patronage on the Carrollton line in- to Howard Avenue was praised by the Applied to the Working of Street and creased, requiring more frequent and reli- Daily Picayune. The old double-deck Other Railways by J. Bucknall Smith, horse cars were being replaced by the new C.E., in 1859 “Messrs. Foster and Brown, able service. Two American built steam “bobtailed” cars. The new cars had a front engines were ordered from William Nor- of the United States, proposed to employ vestibule for the driver, but only a rear ris of Philadelphia in 1836, and two more a an overhead endless traveling rope for step for the passengers, making the cars working street tramway traffic. A suitable year later. appear cut-off or “bobbed.” gripping appliance was devised for oper- The company conducted an inventory ating above the cars to catch or release the June 1, 1867, of the steam rolling stock, cable at pleasure. .” which showed eight locomotives (the Or- In 1869 General Beauregard followed leans, Carrollton, Alabama, Florida, up Foster and Brown’s proposed elevated Lake, Union, May and Jefferson). Four cable traction systems, devising an inge- By 1840 the population of New Or- 42-foot passenger cars had just been sold, nious cable grip or catch, for passing and leans was 102,000, having more than dou- leaving the company with ten 40-foot, clearing the overhead pulleys, by arrang- bled in 10 years, and briefly making the and three 30-foot passenger cars. There ing the supporting arm and operating city the fourth largest in the country. Be- was a 12-foot baggage car; eight 12-foot parts out of the vertical plane of the cable cause of increasing complaints of con- woodcars; four 30-foot box cars; fifteen and gripping jaw. This gripping apparatus gestion in the city, the LaCourse horse car 30-foot flat cars, and four railroad hand- was for cases in which the supporting line was discontinued. The stables known cars, as well as six double and five single pulley was between the hauling rope and as “Horse Station,” just off St. Charles horse cars. the vehicles on the lines. General Beau- Avenue (near Carondelet between Felic- The N.O. & C., having installed new regard was issued U.S. Patent 97,343, ity and Polymnia Steets) remained in use horse cars on the lower half of the road, November 30, 1869, for his “Machinery for another 50 years. During peak busi- from Napoleon Avenue to Canal Street, for Propelling Cars.” Cable traction had ness hours the Carrollton steam engines then considered what to do about the up- been considered for the whole length of stopped at the Tivoli Circle station and per half, from Napoleon to Carrollton. St. Charles Avenue but no action was passengers continued to Canal Street by An “Estimate for Completing Horse Car taken on the proposal. horse power. On weekends and evenings, Lines to Carrollton” dated February 15, In 1870 General Beauregard formed the the steam engines ran through to Perdido 1867, showed in detail the items needed New Orleans Improved Car-Traction Street.

Load more