This picture looks out toward the lake from about the middle of the block between Magazine/Decatur (behind the camera) and Camp/Chartres (ahead).  Single truck car 181 is at the left heading riverbound (toward the camera) on the outer track.  Its wide clerestory roof and rectangular windows identify it as another of the 160-229 group of standard gauge FB&D cars built in 1899 by American Car Co.  Its route sign, hanging from the vestibule roof and repeated in the clerestory glass, shows it to be on the St. Charles Belt line.  On the center track, a cluster of people surrounds the near end of a car which displays a Prytania route sign in the clerestory glass.  This is odd, because the car is standing at the terminal usually used by the French Market, Levee and Barracks, S. Peters, and Tchoupitoulas lines, not the Prytania line.  But the car is also displaying a Special sign on its dash.  It might be chartered for some private purpose, and is using the center track terminal as a stopping point or gathering place for the party.  When the car departs this point, the normal operating procedure would be to travel toward the camera.  We can see in the center foreground that the track switch is set to swing the car from the center track to the inner riverbound track (on our left from the center track) as soon as it begins the trip.  On our right, double truck “Palace” car 04, displaying both clerestory and dash signs for the Annunciation line, is operating lakebound on the inner track.  The clerestory route signs were reputed to be quite beautiful, especially at night, when the car's interior lights would shine through in colors which were unique to each route.  Two copies of the picture are shown; the black and white is from the company archives, and the color from the hand-colored commercial postcard.  The third picture is a closeup detail of the center of the second picture.  The date is probably not much later than 1900. — Detroit Publishing Co. (color picture); Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection (B&W photo)