NextStop Blog
August 16, 2013
Flashback Friday
Return to BlogWere you able to guess when this week’s Flashback Friday photo was taken?
This eastbound streetcar on the Manchester Line is entering Webster Groves in late 1948. Travelling on West Lockwood from Kirkwood, the car is passing the Rock Hill Loop at Rock Hill Road and Lockwood.
Several former streetcar loops on the Manchester Line, including this one, continue to be used by MetroBus vehicles. In fact, the western terminus of the #59 Dogtown is this very Rock Hill Loop.
Below is a recent google maps image of the same spot. Even that little shack on the left has survived!
Happy Friday!
Photo courtesy of Andrew D. Young.
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My dad was a Public Service streetcar motorman so my brother and I rode the streetcars with him a lot and I became a major league streetcar fan and expert. The building at the loop was a restroom for the motormen; most lines had them at loops.
The most exciting loop was the Wellston Loop where many lines converged from north, south, east and west. My favorite loop was two minutes north of that at what had been the Suburban Garden amusement part, just west of Hodiamont and Kennerly, but located below the level of the streets because that location was Mount Auburn, a rise which included a town which preceded the Civil War. My favorite line was the City Limits-Ferguson; we lived about a five minute walk from the loop and on his day off my dad would take us riding through woods, suburbs and little country settlements to Ferguson for an ice cream cone. A surprising amount of right-of-way still exists if you know where to look for it.
Wayne,
Thank you for sharing. I’ll keep an eye out for existing right-of-ways!
I actually did a photo page on them on a publication I do for Normandy high school alumni. Streetcar expert Mark Goldfeder and I went hunting for the City Limits line remnants and also David Neubauer and Mark took me to a surviving stretch of, unbelievably, the St. Charles interurban near the Earth City expressway. Give me an email address and I can send you that feature as an attachment. Though in Chicago 50 years now (the University of Chicago kidnapped me to teach) I am back in St. Louis all the time and my big thrill is riding MetroLink as the rails go right in back of the house I grew up in just north of North Market in Pagedale. I think Metrolink is the best operated light rail venture in the country. I am happy the Delmar streetcar line finally is getting underway and I do think the recreation of the University line eventually will become a reality. I have SO many trolley memories including the now forgotten trolley graveyard just south of Deer Creek and west of Brentwood Boulevard on what was and still is transit property. Nice to hear from you.