UN - FRICK'IN - BELIEVABLE PHOTO FIND !

[Ocklawaha]

McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in Dallas, a city-volunteer corporation
has the only surviving Turtleback streetcar in regular service anywhere in
the world. There may even be a JAX connection to it's history...


I'm dancing around the camp fire tonight y'all, bottle of Rebel Yell in one hand and a rare NEVER SEEN BEFORE package in the other ! YIPPIEEE!

Through digging in uncataloged places, and long dead corporate archives, I have dug out of the records of the St. Louis Car Company, 22, YES COUNT THEM! 22 never seen before in this generation photos of the original streetcars of Jacksonville. These include interior shots of several models, exterior broadside and end shots and at least one set of line drawings for the grand old Turtlebacks, I'm so fond of bringing back to life...
(Which means only 3, maybe 4 places on earth would have them and ours might be new!). Anyone wanting some sneak peeks at Turtlebacks in action today just do an online search for McKinney Avenue Streetcar, in Dallas, TX.. They call theirs the "dragon" or some such as it is such a grand old car.

You Springfield types will be thrilled with one streetcar in the photos, that boldly says 4Th and Pearl, on the destination curtain.

These are huge (and expensive) files from a university in Missouri, and I'll share some images as soon as I can get some downloaded. I have permission to publish but they are under heavy copyright.

As far as I can tell, this nearly doubles the usable or decent photos of our system or equipment (the ones that escaped JTA in the 1980's when they trashed the archives). Gee, I feel like handing out CIGARS! SWISHER SWEETS of course!

Ocklawaha

[JeffreyS]

Congrats Ock.  I'll bet that ride free sign on Dallas Streetcar is one more reason the recent census found Dallas as the fastest growing metro area in the U.S.

[thelakelander]

I'll have to dig up some of my Dallas images from the neighborhoods that trolley serves.  That area was booming with development when I visited the city in 2006.

[Ocklawaha]

Very cool evening to y'all... this new system is REALLY working out, of course it might take months for the pay off, but I just pulled open the lid on another complete collection, and the words, "Jacksonville Electric Company" (forerunner of Jacksonville Traction Co) have already appeared on two boxes of stuff! I'll keep you posted on my success... But here's a peek at the type of work involved.



COLLECTION INFORMATION


VOLUME OF COLLECTION:
2,096 original black-and-white photographs (9 x 11 inches, 21 x 28 centimeters or smaller); 263 sales drawings (most drawings 9 x 11 inches, 21 x 28 centimeters or smaller; 1 drawing in series @ 22 x 20 inches, 20 x 51 centimeters); 65 linen trace drawings (22 x 60 inches, 56 x 153 centimeters or smaller); 5 blueprints (22 x 48 inches, 56 x 123 centimeters or smaller); manuscript and printed material.

 
COLLECTION
DATES: 1902-1931

Ocklawaha