BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Truly unique in both character and usage, the former PRT/PTC streetcar substation at 15th & Tucker (Philadelphia*) was later converted for use as a church, and, in this new role, still serves today........

www.phillytrolley.org/SIAcarbarns/tuckersubstation01.html

*(this site also includes a photo tour of former PRT/PTC carbarns/facilities)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

On the extreme left of this 1930's photo (showing a 2400-series deck roof PSNJ car on the "JACKSON" line*) is the CRRNJ/LV Jackson Avenue station.

https://www.newdavesrailpix.com/psct/htm/psct035.htm

At this location, the tracks were below street level, reached by stairways from the station building proper.

The station closed in the 1940's; in later years, the railroad cut beneath was filled in, and the old station house was then converted into a church.

The HBLR tracks were then placed alongside the old station building, which, according to what I had read a few years back, was sadly demolished.

*(The "JACKSON" line, along with the three other remaining PSNJ HUDSON Division car lines, was converted to buses in August of 1949)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In this 1940's photo, we see a PSNJ "Compromise" roof car on the El at Central Avenue, Jersey City.

The soaring steeple of St. Nicholas R.C. Church (on Central Avenue) can be seen in the background......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?144194

(courtey: nycsubway.og)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Boston, 1983.......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?114757

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Philadelphia, 1955..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?119131

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

A Philadelphia fan trip, 30 years later (1995)..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?151356

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Another nostalgic view of a long-ago "City of Brotherly Love".......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?42176

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Also worth noting........

Back in the heyday of the American streetcar, a sizeable number of motormen and conductors were Irish, particularly in big cities like Boston.

Hard as it is to believe today, in the Boston area, long ago, most of the larger car houses also had a small chapel where Catholic streetcar crews could meditate when off-duty.

It would then be of no surprise at all to learn that, to many an old (Irish) streetcar man, St. Patrick was the (unofficial) patron saint of streetcar crews.

The following is from the 1950 novel, "THE CARDINAL" (Henry Morton Robinson) which was made into a major motion picture in 1963.

"Din Fermoyle", the elderly veteran motorman, is here described on the job, at the controls of his antiquated (Boston) streetcar, in the year 1915:

".......as his trolley clattered past the Immaculate Conception Church, Din lifted his right hand from the brake handle, and doffed his motorman's cap....."
e
"......no simple touching of hand to visor. He made this respectful gesture a dozen times so far that day, six times on his inbound runs, and six times on his outbound runs, towards the carbarns....."

".....yesterday, and the day before yesterday, he had raised his motorman's cap twelve times. For twenty-five years-ever since the first rails were laid-he had been raising his cap as he passed the center doors of the church......"

From what I have read, "Din" was not the only streetcar motorman that did likewise......

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

It has been said that the aforementioned novel and film, "THE CARDINAL", was based, in part, on the lives of Richard Cardinal Cushing (Boston), and Francis Cardinal Spellman (New York)

In Cushing's biography, we learn that his Irish immigrant father was a blacksmith for the Boston Elevated Railway, and also worked in the carbarn repair pits, underneath the silent rows of parked streetcars.

Cushing, himself, earned money for college in 1912/1913, as a BERy streetcar conductor.

In later years, as an alumnus of the Company, he would proudly march with the company employees in their annual march and also attend their memorial Mass.

Cushing would often joke about his grating, rough-sounding voice, saying that he ruined it for "good and all", by yelling out the street names to his passengers, while on duty!

One of Cushing's favorite fund-raising groups was the Mission Circle of the Boston Elevated Railway.

When he made his "calls" around Boston, he often did so via streetcar and subway, and, usually, had to ask the change booth clerk or conductor to "trust him 'till next time", as usually had just given his last dime to someone he'd met along the way, who, he felt, needed it more than he did!

Beginning in late 1913, the future Cardinal began commuting via streetcar daily to the new Boston College......

"NYO"

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Brooklyn, circa-1950..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?30918

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Brooklyn trolleybus #3108, running along Court St*.......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?157015

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

*(1954 photo date is incorrect; note the '57 Ford station wagon following the trolleybus)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Boston, 1979.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?30471

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

More Boston nostalgia; this photo dates back to 1974.......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?127124

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Same city, a few years earlier.......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?127126

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here's an interesting article (from Great Britain) on railway chaplains......

https://www.railstaff.co.uk/2014/06/26/railway-chaplains-mission/