Canal Streetcar (dot com)

Return of the Son of Photo IDs

2009-11-07T18:35:24Z

still more from the New Orleans Province office:

#9 this is such a good portrait!

#10 looks like a copy photo from a yearbook

#11 another good-quality shot that hopefully includes NOLA Brothers!

Even More More Photo IDs

2009-11-07T18:32:45Z

these all came from the New Orleans Province office:

#5 - love this photo, now who's in it?

#6 - given the snow in the background, this may not be useful, unless there's a notable personality here

#7 I feel like I should know this teacher, but alas, I don't.

#8 no idea about this one, either.

More Photo IDs

2009-11-07T18:28:48Z

these all came from the New Orleans Province office:

#1

#2

#3

#4

Like most shots of Brothers in cassocks, they're in a time warp, could be from the 1930's to now.

An Open Letter To The Archbishop Rummel Band Parents

2009-11-05T15:00:27Z

Dear Parents:

Some of your fellow band parents, band boosters, and other supporters of the Rummel Raider Band are quite rude. Yelling things back at the stadium announcer at the District VI Band Directors Marching Festival last night really wasn't necessary. Yes, what the announcer was reading did not match the printed program--it appeared that he mixed up some of last year's information with this year's.

The problem here is that your fellow supporters took a moment, the entry of the Raider Band and the Chapelettes, and made it about the audience, not the young men and women on the field. Your children put on a splendid performance. The "showcase" style of their program is exciting and is enjoyable to watch. Instead of looking at the band's introduction, however, the crowd was looking at those of you turned around, standing up, and yelling at the press box.

I was embarrassed for your children.

I'm not surprised at all by this behavior, of course. Some parents just can't help themselves. They'll yell at a referee in a Under-6 soccer game just as loudly as they'll yell at a professional referee at a Hornets' game. Or just as loud as they did last night.

One other thing to keep in mind next time people associated with your program make an outburst. Band performances are some of the most-recorded high school activities. Unlike football or basketball games, the crowd at a band festival is generally quiet, so they can hear the music. Lots of moms and dads have anything from quality video equipment to their mobile phones up, out, and recording. The sotto voce comments made about the intelligence, body parts, and parentage of the stadium announcer were no doubt picked up on numerous recordings of the Raider Band's performance. Ask yourselves if that's really how you want your child's performance remembered.

As parents, we have a inalienable right to embarrass our children. We cheer, clap, and woot! when they perform. We take photos of them, before, during, and after. We video them from the time they get off the bus until they get in the car to go home. They hate it. We wear their hatred as a badge of honor.

Don't spoil that beautiful relationship by acting out of character.

Chapter Three Photo IDs Needed

2009-11-02T20:06:03Z

I've got several photos I could use some Identification help with:

from a 35mm slide in the Province office. date/location unknown
(UPDATE: Brother Carl identified this as a shot of his novice class from 1966.)

also from Province office, subjects of photo unknown

I don't recognize anyone in this photo, help!

Nick Revon is #13 on the right, does anyone know the other two?

also from the Province office. Most of these large-group shots were shot at St. Stanislaus, this one is so close-up, I can't get a handle on location, much less the subjects.

Nice car, no idea who the Brother is.

I *think* that's Brother Remigius on the left, unknown 2nd from left, Brother Felician 3rd, unknown on right side.

Any thoughts? edward@ebranley.com -- thanks!

The book cover!

2009-10-16T21:11:37Z

(click on image for a larger-sized view)

I chose this particular photo for a couple of reasons. First, it's timeless. It's a novitiate class posing for a photo in the chapel at St. Stanislaus. They're all in cassocks, so it could be a photo from 1910, or it could be from 1960. Truly timeless. Second, it looks really good in sepia tone.

Third, and, in many ways, most important, it's a neutral photo. It's a shot of the chapel at St. Stanislaus, not of any of the schools. The chapel at the Bay is, in many ways, the spiritual nexus of BOSH for the New Orleans Province, and arguably for all of North America. Stanislaus pre-dates St. Aloysius by 12 years, and it's not wrapped up in any of the "merger" aspects of St. Aloysius-Cor Jesu-Brother Martin.

I'm very pleased with how it came out!

Photo Identification 2

2009-10-15T17:03:24Z

This is an architectural sketch I found at the SouthEastern Architectural Archives at Tulane. It was attached to a single page plan of a build-out of a room. The only detail comment on either page is "St. Aloysius Chapel." Does this look familiar?

1. Is that Coach Jack Schommer?
2. Note on the photo (I got it from Ron Brocato) says "Sprinter Bill Engel." Is there any interesting backstory on Engel?

Another Clarion Herald photo. Center is Coach Marks, right, Coach Bob Conlin. Is that Coach Andy Bourgeois on the left?

Photo Identificaton 1

2009-10-08T13:01:28Z

found this in Kenny Spellmann's office. I'm guessing this is St. Aloysius' gym

unknown St. Aloysius basketball player. Am assuming Aloysius rather than BMHS because that's not the warm-ups the team wore in the 1970s. (not to mention the haircut). I have other photos of Nick Revon wearing #13, is this him?

another photo found in Kenny's office, no dates or info.

This looks like a Legion team, but no details available.

Feature Photo - Party Car!

2009-09-21T11:38:04Z

Interior shot of Perley A. Thomas streetcar number 905, on a charter run for a private party. The guest of honor for this celebration is Sebastian Cabot, the actor (seated in the second row). The photo is dated 21-June-1971, which is the summer the St. Charles line, its 35 900-series streetcars, and Carrollton Station were all placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Charter or "party" cars are a popular New Orleans tradition. Many a New Orleanian will have fond memories of going to birthday parties held on streetcars. When I was at university (University of New Orleans) in the late 1970s, my fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha) would charter a streetcar for a Friday or Saturday night party. In those days, consumption of adult beverages was permitted, as you can see in the photo), but rowdy behavior by party-goers forced NORTA to change the old NOPSI alcohol policy in the 1980s.

If you haven't already recognized him, the very dapper gentleman standing in the aisle is then-Judge Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. At the time of this photo, Dutch was a Juvenile Court Judge, having just completed a term in the State Legislature. Dutch would move from the Juvenile bench to the State Court of Appeal (4th District) in 1974, then would become Mayor in 1977.

New Street Rail in NOLA - How the Financing Will Work

2009-09-11T16:40:54Z

(part 4 of 4 - Part 1/Part 2)

Perley A. Thomas streetcar #910, running inbound on St. Charles Avenue

Three new streetcar lines for New Orleans! Sounds exciting, but there's the obvious gotcha to the discussion--somebody's got to pay for it all.

The price tag for constructing the St. Claude, Convention Center, and Loyola Ave. lines will be $212 million. NORTA plans to break this down as follows:

Federal funding: $ 121 million
NORTA-issued bonds: 73 million
Reserve Funding: 13 million
Cancelled projects: 5 million

The bond issue (which would have to be approved by the state legislature) is possible now that NORTA's credit rating has been re-established post-storm.

The big trick here is securing the federal funds. As Da Paper says:

The RTA strategy counts on getting $95.6 million -- nearly half the project's projected cost -- from a component of the federal stimulus package known as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant program.

The $1.5 billion fund pays 100 percent of the construction costs of selected projects.

Competition for the grants is expected to be fierce, as transit systems across the nation vie for light rail projects, new buses and improvements to roads and repair and administrative facilities.

What NORTA has going for them is a proven track record of streetcar development. Riverfront in 1988, then expanded in 1997, Canal in 2004, and storm recover, 2005-2008. This is a track record other transit agencies can only dream of (though no doubt they don't ever want to do storm recovery).

The costs of the three proposed lines break down as follows:

St. Claude:             $ 115.2 million
Convention Center:    51.3 million
Loyola Ave.                45.6 million

the $45.6 million for Loyola comes exclusively from the feds.

NORTA, now under management from Veolia Corporation, has a good plan laid out. What's smart is that they've put up three projects, assuming they'll be trimmed back during the process of allocating funds. If the city gets one of the three, we're looking good.

Like any project that relies heavily on federal funding, it's important that our state's Congressional delegation step up and lobby hard for these funds. That's doubly important for the two Democrats in that delegation, Sen Landrieu and Rep Melancon. Neither has a good voting record on healthcare reform, so lobbying to bring home serious bacon will help boost their approval ratings.

New Street Rail in NOLA - The Union Passenger Terminal Line

2009-09-10T16:37:19Z

(part 3 of 4 - Part 1/Part 2)

Elk Place and Canal Street, early 1960s

The third new streetcar line proposed by NORTA would link Canal Street with the Union Passenger Terminal. Located at Loyola and Howard Avenues, right next to the Pontchartrain Expressway, UPT is the city's Amtrak passenger rail station as well as Grehyound Bus line's terminal.

There have been a number of proposals and experiments in "light rail" connections from downtown to out near the Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) over the years. Because of the rail corridor already existing from UPT out to-and-past Kenner (the Amtrak City of New Orleans heads in that direction on its way to Chicago), UPT is the logical terminus for a downtown-to-airport rail link. What was always lacking from those proposals was a solid method to transport people from UPT to the rest of downtown. A streetcar traveling Loyola Ave. would make the connection.

Loyola has a wide neutral ground, so off-street operations in both directions would be no problem. In addition to accessing Amtrak/Greyhound, the Loyola route would provide a good "back of CBD" corridor route. There are a lot of office buildings in and around the Superdome. Whether Big Charity is re-built or the new LSU-VA hospital complex is constructed, this line would be right in the thick of things.

Street rail is going to get busy at Canal and Rampart! Historically, of course, that's no big deal. At times, this section of Canal Street had six tracks across, four in the neutral ground and one each on either side of the street. I've got some great photos of this track configuration and the streetcar traffic it supported in the book. Canal and Rampart was the terminus of the old West End line, as well as the Orleans-Kenner Railroad. The 2004 Desire line proposal calls for connections from Basin St and N. Rampart to Canal to facilitate turning those streetcars outbound. These may have to be modified, however, since the UPT line would come into Canal St. just a block up from there.

Ideally, the streetcars should be turned around by routing the tracks right up to the front door of UPT; I've drawn the line to terminate in the neutral ground. Like the Cemeteries Terminal on the Canal line, this is a very busy area for auto traffic. Just a couple of blocks away is an on-ramp to the Pontchartrain Expressway, which ties to I-10 in both directions. Pass under the expressway and you can get up on the Crescent City Connection and cross over to the west bank. Drivers who don't go up the on-ramp can continue to Earhart Blvd., and follow that street out to Harahan. Any streetcar terminal built in this vicinity will have to seriously factor in pedestrian safety.

Looking for St. Aloysius and Cor Jesu Photos

2009-09-10T14:40:54Z

I'm working on a new project, another book for Arcadia. It´s tentatively titled "The Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans" and will be part of the "Images of America" series. This is the same series as my Canal Streetcar book.

The books in the Images of America series are photo collections. Each book contains 200-250 captioned photographs in 128 pages. That means I need about 300-350 photos to start with, then narrow that down to the collection that will make the best publication.

I've got solid stuff from the late 70s and 80s from Brother Martin, thanks to a couple of sources I discovered in the BOSH Provice Office. The school's website is a great source for all things from the 2000s.

That brings me to my weak spot--photos of the old schools. The storm wiped out most of the school's archives. A lot of stuff was destroyed when water got into the Administration wing and the Library. There are a few old yearbooks left, but scanning yearbooks is problematic. The best quality images for a book come from original photographs.

If you went to Brother Martin, St. Aloysius, or Cor Jesu, or if your dad/granddad did, I need your help. Lots of families have old scrapbooks and boxes of photos, and I'm hoping we can turn up some on the old schools.

Additionally, if you've got cool photos from when you were at Brother Martin, let me know. The "official" stuff is taken by faculty. That's a good starting point, but there may be some real gems out there taken by you and your friends.

My motivation for doing a book on the BOSH schools is threefold: First, I see it as a great recruiting tool. Once the book is dropped, anyone who types in "Brother Martin/St. Aloysius/Cor Jesu" into Amazon.com will see the book. It'll be all over local bookstores. Men will be able to show their grandsons where they went to school.

Second is historic preservation. We've lost a lot, and there's a serious need to preserve what we still have.

Third is $$$. I'm donating all the royalties for the book back to the school, and no doubt the school will make a buck or two on direct sales.

Can you help with this project? Please contact me - edward at ebranley dot com

Thanks much.

New Street Rail in NOLA - The Convention Center Line

2009-09-09T15:12:47Z

Liberty Place at the foot of Canal Street in the 1900s. This is where Canal and Tchopitoulas Streets come together. Liberty Place was torn up in 1965, to make way for the Rivergate Convention Center (now the site of Harrah's Casino).

The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) has been very diligent in their pursuit of federal stimulus funds, making pitches for three new streetcar lines in New Orleans. Yesterday, we laid out the plan for the return of the St. Claude line. Today we'll look at NORTA's second proposal, a return of part of the old Tchopitoulas line to support the Convention Center.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center was built for the 1984 New Orleans World's Fair. It was the main exhibition hall for the fair, and was converted for convention/trade show use in 1985. Since that time, it's been expanded twice so now it contains over 3million sq ft of floor space. It's the cornerstone of the city's convention industry. The only problem (if it can be considered as such) with the Convention Center is that it's a bit of a walk from facility to the French Quarter, and that's where the city wants all those conventioneers once their day sessions come to an end. To this end, NORTA opened the Riverfront Streetcar line in 1988 and expanded it in 1997.

The track route in red represents the existing Canal Street trackage, and the rose-colored line is the existing Riverfront trackage behind the Convention Center. The new proposal is for a loop like that would go one way up Tchopitoulas, turn down Poydras, then continue up Convention Center Boulevard to Henderson St. At Henderson, the line would turn towards the river, then head down, along the river, to link up with the existing Riverfront line trackage just up from Julia Street.

This line makes a lot of sense. The old Tchopitoulas line linked the wharves and warehouses up the river from Canal Street to the transit hub. The Convention Center line would do the same thing for both conventioneers and residents of the Warehouse District. While the Riverfront line did a lot to promote riding streetcars in the 1990s, it was never integrated into the NORTA transit system. Riders had to pay a separate fare and could not transfer. The down-river half of the Riverfront line was brought into the system with the return of the Canal Line in 2004. Canal cars make a left-turn at the foot of Canal St., heading downriver to the French Market Terminal. Still, that leaves a gap on the uptown side. Riverfront is still a popular line, but more with tourists who want just experience the ride.

Construction of the Convention Center line will not be without complications, however. The neutral ground on Convention Center Blvd. is narrow, so two-track operation won't be possible. That's why the line will be a loop. Additionally, the street is a high-voltage power line corridor, making any construction work slow-going. As you can see from the above photo, trackage on Canal Street currently only makes a left-turn curve onto Riverfront. To complete the loop for cars coming down river from Henderson St on the expanded Riverfront leg, tracks the foot of Canal will have to be expanded to allow Riverfront traffic to make a left-turn to head up-river on Canal, so they can turn onto Tchopitoulas St.

Then there's the biggest obstacle to construction of this line, the Convention Center itself. The logistics involved with moving convention-goers to and from CBD/French Quarter hotels is serious business, and the intense construction involved with putting down streetcar tracks in the neutral ground of Convention Center Blvd. will make those logistics painful. Canal Street is 140' wide, so drivers could work around neutral ground construction; not so here. This will be more like the scene on N. Carrollton Ave., when the Canal line's spur to City Park was being built. As much as businesses on Carrollton wanted the streetcar, the year-long construction process put a serious economic hurt on many of them.

In the convention business, the fear is that something will happen which will make a group decide not to come back to New Orleans. Logistical complications in front of the massive hall could do that. Convention and construction schedules will have to be co-ordinated tightly to ensure that visitors don't leave with a bad impression of the facility and its surroundings.

Once completed, however, the Convention Center line will be an exciting and green public transit alternative for visitors as well as Warehouse District/Lower Garden District residents alike.

New Street Rail in NOLA - St. Claude Line

2009-09-08T15:49:26Z

NOPSI/Perley A. Thomas streetcar 1003 on St. Claude Avenue in the 1930s, during the last massive government stimulus program.

The folks at the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority have been working on street railway expansion for years. Just as the Canal line was coming on line in 2004, NORTA was working on the original proposal to bring back service to Bywater and the Ninth, resurrecting the "Desire" line. The storm put a serious kink in those plans, since there's no longer a Ninth Ward to service. In the four years since the storm, NORTA has been working to re-package the Desire proposal, considering ideas such as running to Press St. or the Industrial Canal, and possibly even running an extension of the Riverfront line further downriver.

The Bush Administration's prosecution of two wars put a serious damper on street railway projects. The main obstacle was a policy change in federal matching funds. When the Canal line was developed in the 1990s, the FTA-to-Local funding ratio was 80/20; Bush's people changed that to 50/50. That made it all but impossible for cash-strapped local agencies like NORTA to bring their plans to fruition.

In the current world of economic collapse and stimulus, however, things have changed. With federal money being pumped into a number of areas, NORTA's expansion ideas have a new lease on life. Let's examine the three lines being proposed, starting with the return of the St. Claude line.

The St. Claude proposal (outlined in red on the above map) is for a line that would start at Canal and N. Rampart Streets, turn onto St. Claude Ave., and continue down St. Claude to Press St. This is essentially a scaled-back version of the Desire proposal NORTA made in 2004. The run down N. Rampart from Canal St. to Esplanade Ave. covers the northern boundary of the French Quarter. This would be a boon to commuters and tourists alike.

From Esplanade Avenue, the line would go down N. Rampart St.to Elysian Fields Ave., offering service to the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. This is another boon to commuters in a very-popular residential area. The proposal also includes a spur line running on Elysian Fields Ave., from N. Rampart to the river, then turning to connect with the end of the Canal line at the French Market terminal (the rose-colored route on the map above). For the Marigny, this is huge, because it enables residents to connect with the Canal line, giving them access to the entire NORTA transit system once they reach Canal St.

The 2004 Desire proposal ran further down into the Upper Ninth Ward, to Desire St. This St. Claude proposal terminates at Press St. The reason is the train tracks you see just to the right of Press. Those tracks connect the riverfront with the big Norfolk Southern rail yard just north of St. Claude. The problem is not grade crossing safety, as many have speculated, but the height issues of the overhead electrical wiring needed for street rail operations. Norfolk Southern operates various modern-style railroad cars on that trackage, particularly the three-decker auto transport cars. Those cars have a height clearance above the trolley wire. This was a major sticking point in getting the railroad's buy-in to the 2004 proposal. NS wanted NORTA to build an overpass on St. Claude, and that just wasn't going to happen. By terminating the line before the railroad tracks, this hurdle has been eliminated. The terminal at Press would be similar to those Beauregard Circle at City Park and S. Carrollton and S. Clairborne Avenues on the St. Charles line. There's no need for turnaround trackage, since all New Orleans streetcars are double-ended.

At Canal Street, the St. Claude line would be connected to the existing Canal tracks via two wye switches. This is similar to the configuration currently implemented at the Canal Station streetcar barn at Canal and Salcedo Streets.

NORTA is proposing two other lines, one linking the Morial Convention Center to Canal Street, and another connecting Canal with the Union Passenger Terminal on Loyola Avenue. We'll continue tomorrow and Thursday with breakdowns of those proposals, wrapping up on Friday with a discussion of how the proposal is to be financed.

Canal Line Back in Operation!

2009-09-07T20:07:37Z

Von Dullen streetcar 2002, heading down Canal Street in Mid City. Service on the Canal line resumed yesterday after an eight-week outage. NORTA had track and roadbed issues they wanted to repair on Canal Street, and the best time to do such work is in the summer.

Von Dullen streetcar 2001, heading up Canal Street. The roll sign on 2001 says CITY PARK, indicating that 2001 will turn right at N. Carrollton and head down to Beauregard Termainal at the three-way intersection of N. Carrollton, Wisner Blvd., and City Park Avenue. The 2001 car was the prototype of the 2000-series, as explained in the book. Since it was a prototype, however, it had a lot of parts that were non-standard with respect to the other 23 cars in the series. Plans were to re-do 2001 in 2005, but the storm changed the timetable and approach to that. Now 2001 is in line with the rest of the Von Dullens.