Minnesota Streetcar Museum
Encyclopedia
The Minnesota Streetcar Museum (MSM) is a transport museum
that operates two heritage streetcar
lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota
and the western suburb of Excelsior
.
The museum was created as part of the restructuring of the Minnesota Transportation Museum
in the winter of 2004–2005. The museum was founded in 1962 to restore a streetcar, Twin City Rapid Transit Company No. 1300, that had been operated by the TCRT until the last streetcar lines were abandoned in favor of buses in 1954. Over time, the museum diversified to include diesel
and steam
-powered trains, bus
es, steamboat
s, and associated buildings, papers, and photographs.
When the museum was restructured in the winter of 2004 and 2005, the Minnesota Streetcar Museum assumed ownership of and responsibility for operation of the two streetcar lines. The Museum of Lake Minnetonka
was created to operate a restored TCRT steamboat, the Minnehaha, which was built by TCRT in 1906, one of seven boats built in a design similar to the company's home-built streetcars. The Minnesota Streetcar Museum now has five operable streetcars, three from TCRT's fleet and two from the Duluth Street Railway Company. As of 2009, a streetcar from Winona, Minnesota
is currently under restoration while a Fargo (North Dakota)-Moorhead Birney
streetcar and a Mesaba Railway interurban car await restoration.
In 1971 the Minnesota Transportaion Museum, precursor to the Minnesota Streetcar Museum, began operating the Como-Harriet Streetcar Line, a heritage streetcar line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The mile-plus long line runs along the original TCRT
streetcar right-of-way between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun and is open to the public. Three restored streetcars formally used by TCRT are used and the Museum has built a replica 1900 station at the intersection of Queen Ave and 42nd Street.
using Duluth Street Railway Company No. 78, transferred from the museum's Como-Harriet Line. TCRT No. 1239 joined No. 78 in 2004. The line is operated on the former Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railway right-of-way now used by the Hennepin County
Regional Railroad Authority as a bicycle trail. All trips feature a tour of the Excelsior Carbarn, where Winona No. 10 is being restored and Mesaba No. 10 is stored awaiting restoration.
Another streetcar from the Duluth Street Railway Company returned to service in 1991 after a seven-year restoration. Duluth Street Railway Company No. 78 is the oldest streetcar in the Museum, having been built by the LaClede Car Company
of Saint Louis, Missouri in 1893. The car, which was retired in 1911, is one of the oldest working streetcars in the country. It is a first-generation electric car that resembles the horse-drawn streetcars that it replaced. It has been operating on the Excelsior Streetcar Line since 1999.
TCRT No. 1239 was built at the 31st Street Shops in Minneapolis and has been restored to the configuration it had when it was constructed in 1907 with a private door to the motorman's cab in the front and double (later triple) stream wire gates for passenger access in the rear. This configuration required "two-man" operation, with a motorman in front who operated the streetcar, including opening and closing the gates, and a conductor at the rear who collected fare
s and helped with backing up when it was required.
Many TCRT streetcars were converted to one-man/two-man operation in the 1930s by adding double-stream folding front doors and replacing the rear gates with similar doors. This gave TCRT the option to operate the car with a motorman only ("one man" operation) or, on busier routes, with a conductor and a motorman ("two man" operation). Because streetcar ridership remained high on many routes until the end of service, many "gate cars" with single-stream front folding door
s remained in service until the end. TCRT No. 1239 returned to service in September 2004.
Transit in Minnesota:
44°55′29"N 93°18′41"W
Transport museum
A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport —including old cars, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and coaches—but can also include air transport or waterborne transport items, along with educational displays and...
that operates two heritage streetcar
Heritage streetcar
Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a development of the heritage railways that are becoming popular across the world. As with modern streetcar systems, the vehicles are referred to as trams or tramcars in the United Kingdom, Australasia and certain other places , but as streetcars or...
lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
and the western suburb of Excelsior
Excelsior, Minnesota
Excelsior is a settlement on Lake Minnetonka in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
.
The museum was created as part of the restructuring of the Minnesota Transportation Museum
Minnesota Transportation Museum
The Minnesota Transportation Museum is a transport museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota.The MTM operates several heritage transportation sites in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin...
in the winter of 2004–2005. The museum was founded in 1962 to restore a streetcar, Twin City Rapid Transit Company No. 1300, that had been operated by the TCRT until the last streetcar lines were abandoned in favor of buses in 1954. Over time, the museum diversified to include diesel
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
and steam
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
-powered trains, bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es, steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s, and associated buildings, papers, and photographs.
When the museum was restructured in the winter of 2004 and 2005, the Minnesota Streetcar Museum assumed ownership of and responsibility for operation of the two streetcar lines. The Museum of Lake Minnetonka
Museum of Lake Minnetonka
The Museum of Lake Minnetonka is an organization that was split from the Minnesota Transportation Museum in 2004–2005 to operate the steamboat Minnehaha that was part of a small fleet made by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company in 1906...
was created to operate a restored TCRT steamboat, the Minnehaha, which was built by TCRT in 1906, one of seven boats built in a design similar to the company's home-built streetcars. The Minnesota Streetcar Museum now has five operable streetcars, three from TCRT's fleet and two from the Duluth Street Railway Company. As of 2009, a streetcar from Winona, Minnesota
Winona, Minnesota
Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the U.S. State of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf....
is currently under restoration while a Fargo (North Dakota)-Moorhead Birney
Birney
A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastructure and labor cost than conventional streetcars...
streetcar and a Mesaba Railway interurban car await restoration.
Como-Harriet Streetcar Line
- For a detailed article see Como-Harriet Streetcar LineComo-Harriet Streetcar LineThe Como-Harriet Streetcar Line is a heritage streetcar line in Minneapolis, Minnesota which follows original streetcar right-of-way between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun and is operated by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum...
In 1971 the Minnesota Transportaion Museum, precursor to the Minnesota Streetcar Museum, began operating the Como-Harriet Streetcar Line, a heritage streetcar line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The mile-plus long line runs along the original TCRT
Twin City Rapid Transit
The Twin City Rapid Transit Company , also known as Twin City Lines , was a transportation company that operated streetcars, and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota...
streetcar right-of-way between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun and is open to the public. Three restored streetcars formally used by TCRT are used and the Museum has built a replica 1900 station at the intersection of Queen Ave and 42nd Street.
Excelsior Streetcar Line
The Excelsior Streetcar Line began operation in 1999 in west-suburban Excelsior on Lake MinnetonkaLake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka is a lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Throughout its recorded history, the lake has been a resort destination. It is located west-southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The lake is an irregular shape with numerous bays and islands which make up about of shoreline...
using Duluth Street Railway Company No. 78, transferred from the museum's Como-Harriet Line. TCRT No. 1239 joined No. 78 in 2004. The line is operated on the former Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railway right-of-way now used by the Hennepin County
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...
Regional Railroad Authority as a bicycle trail. All trips feature a tour of the Excelsior Carbarn, where Winona No. 10 is being restored and Mesaba No. 10 is stored awaiting restoration.
DSR No. 78
Laclede Car Company
Laclede Car Company was founded in 1883 by William Sutton and Emil Alexander, who later founded the American Car Company and worked at Brownell Car Company in St. Louis, Missouri, USA....
of Saint Louis, Missouri in 1893. The car, which was retired in 1911, is one of the oldest working streetcars in the country. It is a first-generation electric car that resembles the horse-drawn streetcars that it replaced. It has been operating on the Excelsior Streetcar Line since 1999.
TCRT No. 1239
Fare
A fare is the fee paid by a passenger allowing him or her to make use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used.-Uses:...
s and helped with backing up when it was required.
Many TCRT streetcars were converted to one-man/two-man operation in the 1930s by adding double-stream folding front doors and replacing the rear gates with similar doors. This gave TCRT the option to operate the car with a motorman only ("one man" operation) or, on busier routes, with a conductor and a motorman ("two man" operation). Because streetcar ridership remained high on many routes until the end of service, many "gate cars" with single-stream front folding door
Folding door
A folding door is a type of door which opens by folding back in sections. They are usually to be found indoors. Folding doors were already known by the Romans as excavations in Pompeii have revealed....
s remained in service until the end. TCRT No. 1239 returned to service in September 2004.
See also
Other places with Twin City Rapid Transit hardware:- Seashore Trolley MuseumSeashore Trolley MuseumThe Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's oldest and largest museum of mass transit vehicles....
- East Troy Electric Railroad Museum
- San Francisco Municipal RailwaySan Francisco Municipal RailwayThe San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
's Market Street RailwayMarket Street RailwayMarket Street Railway may be a reference to:*Market Street Railway , a nonprofit organization that supports the operation of the F Market historic streetcar line in San Francisco...
Transit in Minnesota:
- Twin City Rapid TransitTwin City Rapid TransitThe Twin City Rapid Transit Company , also known as Twin City Lines , was a transportation company that operated streetcars, and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota...
- original streetcars and bus lines in the Twin Cities - Metro Transit (Minnesota)Metro Transit (Minnesota)Metro Transit is the transit division of the Metropolitan Council, a regional governmental agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Metro Transit is the largest operator of bus services in the seven-county region surrounding Minneapolis and St...
- current LRT and bus company in the Twin Cities
External links
44°55′29"N 93°18′41"W