Pictures 115 and 115.5.

Here are closeup views of one of the 7-window 1894 Brill cars, like that seen in Picture 114.  These pictures appear to date from the period 1894 to 1899, because the car is lettered “N. O. C. & L. R. R.”, i.e., New Orleans City & Lake Railroad.  This company, formed from the old New Orleans City RR in 1883, was from 1892 to 1899 one of the component companies of the New Orleans Traction Co.  Car 115 is still riding on its original Brill 22-E Maximum Traction trucks.  This is probably the original “as built” appearance of these cars.  The location is not known, but the tracks suggest that it is at a car barn, perhaps Canal Barn or Esplanade Barn.  Close inspection of the front clerestory reveals the route name Esplanade, which would have been housed at one of those car barns.  On the back of the top picture, in contemporary handwriting, are the names of the men, in this order: Conductor Jackson, I. M. Kellogg, I. W. Ford, John Jacquet, ______ Thomas, J. L. Paine, and R. O'Brian [sic].  The back of the bottom picture lists, in the same handwriting, the names R. O'Brian [sic], J. L. Paine, and I. W. Ford.  However, there is no specific indication of which person is which, except for the “conductor” (presumably the motorman, since no conductor is in sight).  The September 1928 issue of Electric Traction published a copy of the second picture, and the caption identifies the man at the far left of that phoro as Robert “Bob” O'Brien, who came up through the ranks to become in 1914 superintendent of equipment.  Matching faces between the two pictures leads to the conclusion that the names listed are given in order, left to right (regardless of how high they are standing), except for “conductor” Jackson.

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