1933, 5:54pm, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Long Beach. Imagine what the result of that catastrophe would be today in LA rush hour?

for a photo gallery, or to read about it: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-longbeach_1933earthquake-pg,0,3546233.photogallery

Streetcars, were good for more than just public transportation... did you know they were used to plow snow along their route?

read about plowing snow with street cars: http://cincystreetcar.wordpress.com/2009/01/

I like that many were made into little diners. See the inside of one at the Henry Ford museum https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitfYGs-ahPb-oHnfyXGJfmHqkByBDcZpJGCPsJZBg_Ufqnm8SIQc1tzUkU5iIwU5WXWSLRD01qiq-M1F9H1M7VUsarM1QwjUUHbSKwBiFNCUvt1kRds_ykEPN2QSXyttR_7vn3X5O0L-Y/s1600/Henry%2520Ford%2520Diner%5B1%5D.jpg it is the nicest I've seen, most are far more simple and less ornamental

Some were made into houses: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/09/street-cars-getting-second-life-as-home.html

And in San Diego I found one diner street car, and two homes made from street cars http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/survivors-of-era-i-doubt-anyone-else.html

photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=925

National City Train Depot's retired electric train from the Boston Elevated Railway

Wouldn't city transportation be more appealing with the original streetcars?

Above image via: http://hooniverse.com

but the shortsighted greedy bastards sold out to gross polluting diesel bussses, and trashed all the cool looking and electric streetcars. Morons. I was reading recently about all the cities that went to electric streetcars as a pollution reducing measure, and to increase the effective public transit systems. Here in San Diego when huge events like major league ballgames, national football league games, or an event like Comic-Con happen, the go to device for getting there and back is usually the trolley system. Nothing as aesthetic as the old street cars, but serviceable

I found the portfolio of an incredible photographer, James Haefner, here are a couple to entice you with, go to his website for his portfolio

See all of his incredible work (about 40 superb photos in the Automotive Vintage section)
and more in the other sections if you also like automotive advertising, architectural, and etcetera
1930 Duesenburg detail

Bucciali doorhandle detail

Panhard Levassor

The factory 1967 test GTX that is famous for the great lengths that Chrylser Research and Development engineers went through to make the Silver Bullet (a name coined by Ro McGonegal and the Car Craft story specifically) nothing less than a factory-backed car purpose-built for STREET RACERING on Woodward Avenue; running 10.60s at 132 mph

http://www.silverbulletgtx.com/history/bullet.html

or read Car Craft's write up (good one!) and full gallery http://www.carcraft.com/featuredvehicles/906_1967_plymouth_belvedere_gtx/index.html

The street car converted into a diner at the Henry Ford Museum

All of these photos courtesy and permission of James Haefner PhotographyPortfolio: http://www.haefnerphoto.com/

Copywrite of James Haefner

1960 Thunderbird

Troy, Michigan 48084

ph: 248 362 6850

800 670 7035

fax: 248 362 6858

cool things found at Greyhandgang.com

What do you think, an airport runway snow melter?

Buckminster Fuller and a Dymaxion

Cuban taxi's.... aren't they awesome! Looks like a 55 Ford and a 53 Chev. I'd take a ride in these over a modern taxi, damn right I would

I'm not sure, but it looks like the trans-arctic vehicle

A street car used to build artificial reefs

The Vereycken Diwheel 1947 and you can read more about it http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/diwheel/diwheel.htm

The Munsters coach it looks like, it is on Santa Monica Blvd, and it's 1964

An Autogyro over New York

a photo of the Blitzen Benz I haven't seen before

looks like El Mirage

What an Americana moment, the purple car is a Studebaker Commander I think

via: http://www.greyhandgang.com/

New York streetcars from decades ago, among the warehouses along the waterfront

notice the 150 year old (or so) warehouses that were built to last, and with full hurrucane shutters... amazing. The streetcars still have the power lines above them, and with so many open windows they surely won't last for asvmany more years as they've had, before the weather just detriorates them from the inside out. The last of their kind? Probably, can you imaging any others that were saved from scrap, allowed to keep their peice of track, and weren't buearacratically removed from public enjoyment? I suppose very very few people looking at them feel any nostalgia, and maybe I'm one of a handful that is glad they are still around just to look at.

Via an awesome website that focuses on New York City historical bits of architecture and history that is everywhere but seldom noticed, like gargoyes, statuary on buldings (even in Times Square) and is all noticed and posted by a wonderful writer who swears very well at the destruction of the cool old buildings that developers are quickly making disappear to be replaced with glass and steel nondescript high rise condos.

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=12 has these street cars and his jaunt to a neighborhood called Red Hook, where the warehouses are great, and their is a perfect front view of the Statue of Liberty

Bedford Avenue and Manhattan Avenue in New York, 1928 photo with a lot going on

on the far right is a street sweepers push cart, at the far end of that building is the streetcar. On the left is a car with a grill I don't recognize at all! via: http://roughingitblog.tumblr.com/page/3

In a lonesome railroad yard in Michigan

these just put follish notions in my head of getting one and making a summer place out of it, or making it railroad safe, and paying a railroad company to link up and see America by rail in my own car.... not that I have a nickel to my name, but you have to start with a dream, a hope, and if everything works out, you may see it all happen. Just look at how this blog started as things I posted so I could email a link to friends instead of emailing them all the cool and fun stuff I come across!

When the LA streetcars were replaced by buses, the cool streetcars were dumped and used as artificial reefs, some went to Korea in '56

Above went to Korea in 1956

Ain't the above photo a crying shame?! From a documentary I watched, GM lobbied local, state, and federally to get all street cars killed off because GM could make tons of money selling fleets of busses. Guess who already had GM stock? Yup, the people who got rid of the wonderful streetcars. How much pollution have the busses emitted since the streetcars went away? Only US cities that kept their tourist attracting street cars that I know of are San Francisco and New Orleans, two cities that love their history.

read about the re-birth of street cars: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/world/americas/14iht-city.4.15301447.html

images via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4927350

Street cars getting a second life as a home, very cool

Via: http://www.shorpy.com/

and if you also find this cool, take a look at the ones that Randy showed me here in San Diego http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/survivors-of-era-i-doubt-anyone-else.html

The "Track" in Road and Track was street car railroad tracks... evidenced by exhibit A...... Click on each page for the full size version

April 1962 "Road and Track" magazine

Weekly dose of train photos

From Pixdaus

Facets of the 1915 San Diego Pan California Exposition

Why they thought it would be a good idea... Money. Increasing city revenue

It's a good read.. but in a nutshell, they tried to get rich by having a World's Fair. They didn't realize that the new craze, the car, and ingenuity of everyguy Joe to make a buck, would combine to steal away 8 million nickel fares from the street cars that were supposed to recoup the costs of building the venues, trains, and city improvements.

Is this possibly the reason that cities won't allow anyone to buy a cheap Taxi token? Here in San Diego a token (on the rare occasion that the tight fists of city hall can be pried open) will cost about $200,000. If we could all charge a bit over the bus fare, and stop to pick up anyone at a bus stop, the buses would be out of business in a hurry. No more mass transportation income for the cities. Perhaps the income of buses, trains, trolleys, etc is the reason that cities keep trying to advertise the limited benefit of mass transportation.. when the local govt types are riding in new, free, suv's and luxury cars... and letting the taxpayers cover the costs... like fuel.