STDR 355-404  22' OB Lord Baltimore St. Louis Car Co. ON 869 20 Apr. 1910 50 cars
These were New Orleans' last ST ordered from a carbuilder.  Five cars in this series REN (400-404 to 350-354) to avoid conflict with the DTAR 400s of 1914, Perley A. Thomas' first design for N. O.  Order meant for the Prytania Line, hence their name “Prytania cars”.  RB late teens with straight sides, folding steps, four panel doors.  As deliv. P - S p. 127, 1910.  RB, P - S p. 128.  After 1923, only 24 retained for service (351, 355-58, 361, 377, 379-92, 396-98), though some others were apparently recalled from retirement in the later 1920s (see picture of 363 below).  These the last ST in regular service (1932), their last duty owl service.  Stored for poss. re-use, scrapped late '30s.  DTAR 800s replaced these on Prytania in 1923.

Declining use of ST cars in N. O. (TP 3/21/24 p. 3 — only 8 lines using them: Broad (both branches: Paris Ave. and St. Bernard), City Park, Clio, Desire, Napoleon, Peters Ave., Southport Shuttle, and Villere).  As ST cars faded, buses appeared.  ERJ v. 67 no. 15 4/10/26 N. O. has 221 mi. st. ry. (90 in neut. gnd.) — BUT — 19 buses on NOPSI roster (6 Mack, 9 Yellow, 1 Grahame Bros., 3 Fageol gas elec.).

NOPSI 363 - St. Bernard RB “Prytania” car 363 makes its way through the Vieux Carré on the St. Bernard line, one leg of the Broad line, some time in the late 1920s. — George Friedman collection

NOPSI 394 & bus RB “Prytania” car 394 and an early NOPSI bus along N. Broad Street, August 20, 1929.  The bus is a Mack AB, either from the Charles A. Kaufman order of 1923 (quickly bought by NOPSI), or NOPSI's 1925 order for the same type. — Teunisson photo, Earl Hampton collection

SERVICE RECORD
352 BR 6/29/17 [note]    380 PR 12/24/16
356 PR 12/25/14    385 PR 1/21/19
357 COL 5/19/11    387 VI 10/29/16
358 VI 3/5/20    389 NA 2/12/16
360 PR 1/15/21    390 PA 8/1/12, VI 10/9/17
361 PR 4/9/12, VI 10/9/17    394 VI 4/23/19
369 PR 12/4/14    396 COL 12/8/20
371 PR 11/21/15    397 COL 4/17/13
377 PR 8/8/19    398 HC 1/22/12
378 PR 4/27/19    403 PA 4/21/13, 6/17/13
379 PR 5/18/11    404 CDT 3/7/11, PA 11/25/12
[Note] Broad Line originally one of the Orleans RR system — see ORRCo. p. k.

DOUBLE TRUCK CARS

NEW ORLEANS TRACTION CO. (Holding Company)
NEW ORLEANS CITY & LAKE RR CO.

DTDR 500-507  28'1" OB
36'1" OA
8'5" W
B&S Type H Barney & Smith ON —— 1898 8 cars
DTDR 509-512  29'1" OB
37'1" OA
8'7" W
B&S Type H American Car Co. ON —— 1898 4 cars
First 8 cars so satisfactory, four more ordered immediately.  These attractive cars opened the electrification of the West End Line in 1898.  B&S diverted 509-512 to Amer.  There was no 508.  (Superstition?  5 + 8 = 13 and adding 508 to the 12 makes 13 cars.)  Spanish-Amer. War could have made materials scarce, or B&S could have been too busy to make the cars quickly.

These were 4-mot. cars, 33" WH.  500-507 used Whse. 12A mot., 509-512 used GE 58 mot.  These and the Morris cars 046-057 had train doors, the only ones in N. O. to have them.

500-507 SCR 1921-24 except two (nos. unk.) RB & RG by NOPSI.  All 509-512 also SCR same period except one (no. unk.).  The three RB & RG by NOPSI to make gas mot. train for New Orleans & Lower Coast RR (1 mot. & 2 trailers) circa 1924, final disposition unk.  Mentioned in NOPSI Work Orders.  P - N, also see The Short Line Doodlebug — Galloping Geese and Other Rail Critters, Edmund Keilty, Interurban Press, Glendale, Calif. 1988, Interurbans Special 99, p. 62.  RB used Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. chassis — eqpt. orders 622-24.

Excellent P (no. 511) ERJ v. 55 no. 9 2/28/20 p. 442-43 pulling Coleman trailers — Spanish Fort Line, N. O. Ry. & Lt. Co.  Nelson H. Brown masterminded the conversion of the park into a profitable venture.

P Amer. Car Co. order S p. 133.  P B&S order N & S p. 134.  Note diff. in dimensions of the two orders, especially the wider windows at corner posts of the Amer. order.

NOC+L_512-bldr The second order for Barney & Smith DT cars, built by American Car Co., 1898.  (An early example of “outsourcing.”  Possibly B&S too busy to handle an order quickly at this time.)  Note wider sash at each end of sides.  These cars one foot longer than the first B&S order.  The B&S cars pulled three-car trains of trailers on the West End Line. — Louis Hennick Collection of The Historic New Orleans Collection

WestEnd_train-NewBasinCanal A three-car West End train pulled by one of the Barney & Smith 1898 DT cars, inbound alongside the New Basin Canal, circa 1903. — Louis Hennick Collection of The Historic New Orleans Collection

NOCRR_509+train-WestEnd From a 1902 New Orleans City RR Co. tourist guide, open platform car 509 pulling three of the American Car Co. RR roof trailers in West End service. — George Friedman collection

Line_wagon_2 The terminal area at the foot of Canal Street, some time between 1899 and 1904.  Emergency tower wagon no. 2 of the New Orleans City R. R. Co. is supporting two men working on some problem with the overhead wire, as the motorman and conductor of car 510 look on from the platforms of their car.  The 510 is one of the American Car Co. double truck cars built to Barney & Smith design in 1898.  It was usually assigned to pull a train of trailers on the West End Line, but that line did not usually come to the foot of Canal, so the car may be in use as a single streetcar.  At left on the outer track is FB&D car 207, one of the standard gauge cars 160-229 built by American in 1899 for the New Orleans & Carrollton.  Of the three other single truck cars in view, the one to the right is one of the “Esplanade” cars, numbers 260-277, built in 1900 by St. Louis Car Co., and the other two are 20' Brills built between 1893 and 1895 for New Orleans City R. R. — Teunisson Photo, collection of Eugene Groves

SpanishFort01 Built by American Car Co. (Barney & Smith design, diverted to American, 1898), car 509 with three Coleman trailers, closed platforms and train doors — only other DT cars in N. O. to have train doors were the Morris cars.  Originally intended for and used on the West End line, but beginning in 1911, New Orleans Ry. & Light Co. switched its excursion traffic, and these cars, to Spanish Fort.  This 1912 picture postcard view shows a train arriving at the new Spanish Fort station.  The B&S cars were rugged and dependable, lasting well into the 1920s. — C. B. Mason postcard, collection of George Friedman

SpanishFort00 Sometimes a 500 would pull only two trailers, as here circa 1915.  There was no loop at Spanish Fort.  American Car Co. car 511 is maneuvering around its train to “change ends” for the return trip to the City.  See track layout on maps in S pp. 66-67 and pp. 82-83. — E. F. Keplinger photo, collection of George Friedman

NO+LC-ex_B+S_cars (127K) NOPSI in early 1920s rebuilt two Barney & Smith first order cars and one American second order car into a three-car motor train for New Orleans & Lower Coast RR.  4-wheel drive Auto Car Co. running gear.  Note how the original double trucks have been replaced by a single axle at each end of the car.  Compare length of the end windows at each end of the middle car (from American) to those of the other two cars (from B&S).  Unknown how successful this heavy motor train turned out.  Caption in white on the picture reads, “FWD three car gasoline train operated by New Orleans and Lower Coast RR Co / Four Wheel Drive Auto Co. Clintonville Wis USA 622-24”. — Louis Hennick Collection of The Historic New Orleans Collection

SERVICE RECORD
500   MG 11/25/99, 3/1/00, WE 6/18/03
501 WE 7/8/01, 6/19/05, SF 5/3/20
502 WE 5/13/01, VI 10/6/14, ES 2/27/19, On Canal St. 9/20/20
505 WE 8/1/98, MG 12/1/98, WE 7/20/03, SF 3/15/15
509 On Canal St. 11/11/99
510 WE 6/18/03, On Canal St. 2/13/05, WE 10/7/08, SF 11/14/15, 11/26/18
511 On Canal St. 3/31/02, WE 5/6/02, 1/15/09, 1/28/17
512 WE 5/11/06, 9/28/09

Text copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 Louis C. Hennick.  Pictures copyright © 2009 by the persons credited.  Picture captions copyright © 2009, 2010 Louis C. Hennick and H. George Friedman, Jr.  All rights reserved.

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