SKU: T23+24/D
Until the post-World War II era, Brooklyn had a very extensive street railway system. Trolley tracks extended to every part of the Borough. Whether it was Coney Island, Prospect Park, Sea Gate, Canarsie, or Fresh Pond, you could get there by trolley. Downtown Brooklyn had a large network of lines, and a number of routes crossed into Manhattan via the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges. Several lines extended to Queens, including the 1939 World’s Fair site.
Brooklyn’s trolley system began with the establishment of several horse car lines in 1854. By 1929, there were more than 3200 trolleys running over 50 lines encompassing 500 miles of track. The first modern streamlined trolley cars to run in the United States made their debut on October 1, 1936 when Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) car 1026 was put on display at Albee Square. Soon, 100 of these sleek streamliners provided comfortable and swift service on a number of Brooklyn trolley routes.
BROOKLYN TROLLEYS VOLUME I presents a nostalgic portrait of the Brooklyn system between 1936 and its abandonment in 1956. Included are rides over the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges; downtown scenes in the Tillary and Court Street areas; Fresh Pond, Ninth Ave. and Canarsie depots; the Prospect Park and Coney Island areas; Rockway shuttle; rare Norton’s Point Shuttle; 39th St. Ferry Terminal; Coney Island shops; the Flushing-Ridgewood line; and BMT el trains on the suface.
VOLUME II opens with scenes taken during a rather unusual 1946 fantrip pulled by an electric steeple-cab locomotive over some freight-only trackage and other Brooklyn lines, the program then presents more trolley action as we ride another 1946 excursion to various points on the system. Next, see the system in 1951 as we offer color film sequences taken on the trip by three different railfans on the same excursion! You’ll also visit Coney Island yard, view the scrapping of trolleys, watch as PCC 1050 poignantly takes her last trip, and witness part of PCC 1001’s journey to her new museum home at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in Connecticut. Brooklyn also had a very extensive network of elevated railway lines which featured a quaint variety of ancient rolling stock. You’ll see these unique trains in action on the Myrtle, Fulton, Culver, and Lexington lines in the 1940s and 50s. The program concludes with scenes of the Brighton line and the last trains to 168th Street on the Jamaica Avenue El.
