NEW ORLEANS IN 1945

H. George Friedman, Jr., Editor

The following is a transcription of E R A HEADLIGHTS for July, 1945, pages 9 and 10.  It lists the streetcar roster, car assignment to lines, and car and line assignment to stations (car barns).  The track map below is from page 10 of the original, and shows the entire system at that time.  Necessary notes by this editor, not part of the original publication, are given within [square brackets].

Copyright © 1945 and 2007, Electric Railroader’s Association, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted by permission.


E R A HEADLIGHTSJULY 1945

NEW ORLEANS

     There are few cities in the country where the operation of trolley cars is so generally scenic and attractive as in New Orleans.  Considerable of the lines are on private right of way, either away from the streets or in the center of a boulevard---one [sic] a neutral strip as they call it in New Orleans.  Unfortunately the post war plans for this system call for conversion to busses or trolley busses of all lines except Canal-Cemetery [sic: Cemeteries], St. Claude and Tulane-St. Charles Belt.  These lines are in the process of being rebuilt with good rail and new ballast.

     Car roster is as follows:
Number   Series Description
50 400-499 [sic] Double end, two man, arch roof, maximum traction trucks, two motors, hand doors, straight air brakes
[Numbers should be 400-449.]
1 453 Double end, two man, arch [sic: deck] roof, air doors, two motors.  Training car.
100 800-899 Double end, two man, arch roof, two motors, hand doors, straight air brakes.
72 900-969 Double end, two man, arch roof, two motors, air doors
971, 972
1 970 Double end, two man, arch roof, four motors, air doors, self lapping brakes.
20 1000-1019   Double end, two man, arch roof, four motors, air doors, self lapping brakes, low built bodies.

Assignment to lines:
400-449 Tulane-St. Charles
800-818 Tulane-St. Charles
819-883 Canal [Cemeteries and West End], St. Claude, Desire, Gentilly
884-969 Arabella Station Lines [Freret, Jackson, Magazine, Napoleon, S. Claiborne]
970 St. Claude
971-972 Arabella Station Lines [Freret, Jackson, Magazine, Napoleon, S. Claiborne]
1000-1019   St. Claude

Work equipment:
29 Single truck, ex passenger car
56, 59 Double truck flats
021 Single truck open work car
031, 032  Single [sic: double] truck dump trailers
052, 053  Single [sic: double] truck dump motors
055 Single truck line car
[Unfortunately, this list of work cars appears to be incomplete.  Pictures are known of center dump car 054 and its trailer 034 dated 1950; see Hennick & Charlton, The Streetcars of New Orleans, 1975, p.174.  Hennick & Charlton also state (p. 171) that there were 17 work cars in 1944.  This article is only about a year later.]

Line assignments [to stations]:
Canal Station     Carrollton Station     Arabella Station
Canal-Cemetery(A) Tulane Belt(L) Magazine(F)     [“Cemetery” should be “Cemeteries”]
Canal-West End(M) St. Charles Belt(H) Napoleon(G)
St. Claude(J) Freret(C)
Gentilly(D) Jackson(E)
Desire(B) [S.] Claiborne(K)
[The letters in parentheses above identify the lines on the map below.]

     Headways range from two to eleven minutes, and the number of scheduled cars reaches 227 in the rush hour out of 243 that the company owns.  Another commentary of the high availability of rail equipment.  The lines are of the wide, or 5' 2½" gage, though this odd gage is in general found only in Pennsylvania where it is almost universal.

     Data for this article and the accompanying map were contributed by member R. S. Korach, who is now in the Army and stationed in New Orleans.

[The map below is from page 10 of the original.  It is shown in a compact form, and below that in full resolution.  Unfortunately, there is some print-through from the text on the other side; nothing can be done about that.]

TrackMap1945

[There are some small problems with this map, but overall, the details are accurate.  Unfortunately, Korach did not sketch the trackage of the Napoleon Yard, at the foot of Napoleon Ave. on the southeast corner of Tchoupitoulas St.  Also, at Canal St., Royal and Bourbon Streets (Bourbon is not labelled) should be shown in line with St. Charles and Carondelet Streets, respectively.  A four-track crossover should be shown in the block of Canal St. between Carondelet and St. Charles.]

TrackMap1945


Computer Science Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Home Page

H. George Friedman, Jr. Home Page

New Orleans Streetcar Album