Red Hook Trolley Cars

Today I saw old Trolley Cars in Red Hook Brooklyn.  I posted a photo of them on facebook to see if anyone knew their story.  I apologize as I am exhausted and have been working for 12 hours today and need to be up again at 6 a.m. to audition for a show - so I'm simply going to share the facebook responses I got as to the mysterious Red Hook Trolley Car story!

Also - please know these are answer from tour guides who are much more experienced and knowledgeable than myself - I cannot take credit for any of this information!

 Those trolley cars are owned by the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, run by Bob Diamond, the same guy who discovered the abandonded Atlantic Ave railroad tunnel. He & others were trying to bootstrap a trolley operation back into operation in Red Hook. The city DOT originally gave approval, trolleys were acquired and rails were laid. Then mysteriously, the DOT backed out, ripped out all the rails & its all been stuck in court ever since.

Trolleys? Trams? Street cars? So many names for what was once a primary transportation system throughout the city, or, the so-called outer boroughs. Dismantled because GM wanted to sell buses. At their peak, probably twice the mileage of service than the subway offers today. This is one legacy of LaGuardia, who thought trolley cars gave the image of poverty. (!) Odd, but I can't recall seeing them in NYC based movies, so I s'pose primarily Brooklyn & Queens (you can see the scars of the old tracks in some neighborhoods).

About a decade ago they were restored by trolley buff Bob Diamond, who hoped to run them on a line on Columbia Street and Furman along the waterfront. He actually got some tracks built before the city pulled the plug. They have been left to deteriorate in back of Fairway since.

They were supposed to be part of a planned waterfront trolley from Red Hook to the Brooklyn Bridge that has beren debated since the 80s. Bob Diamond purchased and brought tgem here for a proposed Trolley Museum and Restoration that has never happened. They are mainly PCC cars from Brooklyn and other cities think Philadelphia and Cleveland.

Bob Diamond had so many dreams for the trolly system to be restored from Downtown Brooklyn to Red Hook. He was also was the guy who found the first tunnel in NYC under Atlantic Ave. I can't believe those trolleys survived after Sandy. THANK GOD!

they sit there, splendidly! A study in entropy!