Sometimes, the presence of through tracks on the outer edge of the Canal Street neutral ground, normally unused, could be quite convenient.  Here is an example.  After the S. Claiborne line had been converted to bus in early 1953, NOPSI decided to rebuild the upbound track on St. Charles Street between Canal and Lee Circle, and remove the long unused downbound track.  It was announced that during the project, St. Charles cars would use Baronne Street instead of St. Charles Street.  Of course, making a left turn from Carondelet to Canal and again to Baronne was impossible.  These pictures give us an idea of how the detour was accomplished.  We see St. Charles cars running lakebound (wrong way!) on the outer track from Carondelet to Baronne.  Cars turned from Carondelet to Canal, stopped and changed ends, then ran to Baronne and turned into that street, running up Baronne to Howard Avenue and thence to St. Charles Avenue at Lee Circle.  With an extra man on the ground to assist with the trolley poles, this might not have taken much more time than the normal operation.  The upper photo features car 971 followed by 960, with the nose of a Freret trolley coach visible in the background at Carondelet.  The lower photo features car 964.