User:Bhtpbank/Heritage Express Trolley

Heritage Express Trolley 

The Heritage Express Trolley is a heritage streetcar system in El Reno, Oklahoma.

The trolley runs from Heritage Park, located on the grounds of the Canadian County Historical Museum and travels through the downtown area of El Reno.

The trolley operates from Wednesday to Sunday.

The system is operated by a Brill Motor Car that was originally built in 1924. The car has been fully restored and can seat 48 people.

Description The city of El Reno (population about 15,000, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City) inaugurated its Heritage Express Trolley in August 2001, as a tool for promoting tourism. A single-track route of about 0.9 mile (1.5 km) connects the Canadian County Historical Museum, at the former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad station, with the downtown shopping area along Bickford Avenue. This is not an electric operation, but instead uses propane gas for power.

Service is provided by a single double-ended car which was originally built by J. G. Brill in 1924. It started as car #60 of the Philadelphia & Western Railway, an electric interurban line which survives today as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's route 100 (the Norristown High Speed Line). It was the first of a group of eleven cars known among railfans as Strafford cars because they saw extensive use on the P&W's branch to Strafford. In 1931 it was rebuilt (along with its siblings) and renumbered to #165, and continued to operate on into the SEPTA era, finally being retired in 1986 at the age of 62. It was sold in 1991 to the Keokuk Junction Railway, which transported workers at the Keokuk Dam across the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois. After this line discontinued electric operation in the late 1990s, #165 was sold to El Reno, which had it converted from electric to propane power, and renumbered it to #145.

From 1911 to 1946, El Reno was the terminus of one of the Oklahoma Railway's electric interurban lines which radiated from Oklahoma City. (Local service within El Reno had begun in 1909.) Most of the tracks were removed after the line was abandoned, but a short remnant peeks through the asphalt on London Street near the former interurban station. That building, which also housed a hotel, still stands across the street from the museum.

One end of the line is a simple stub end at the carbarn, and the other end is a single-track loop around two downtown blocks. After going around this loop and starting back towards the carbarn, the operator stops in the middle of Bickford Avenue and moves to the other end of the car. He then goes around the loop again, in the same direction as before, before finally returning to the carbarn. This ensures that the car is always oriented in the same direction at the carbarn, makes the ride a little longer, and provides more opportunities for someone like me to take pictures from the sidewalk as the car passes. The track layout does not allow the car to go continously around the loop more than once, by the way.