New Orleans Streetcars

1950-1956 Charles Howard Photos



This is just a small sample of the photos Charles took from 1950 through 1956. All are dated but locations are not given. (More information may be available in Charles' notebooks.) These photos represent the diversity of images, though by far the majority are of cars in operation. Thanks to H. George Friedman for help with some localities and corrections to an earlier version of this page.

The entire collection of Charles' New Orleans Streetcar photos consists of:

  • 80 square 1 5/8" negatives of New Orleans streetcars taken in 1950, 1952, and 1953. Mostly cars; a few of car house and yards. Several of the New Orleans Belt Railroad which hauled freight through the city.
  • 145 3 1/2" x 2 1/4" negatives of the New Orleans streetcars taken in 1955 and 1956. These include many well framed pictures of cars, some of the yards, some inside a repair facility (details of trucks and other parts), some inside cars, some of a maintenance car, and two of a track repair crew.
  • "Last day" transfers on the Napoleon and S. Claiborne lines from 2/17/53 and 1/4/53 respectively.

1. June 28, 1955. Carondelet St.

12. June 28, 1955 on the Canal line. There are scores of photos of the cars on various lines in urban and residential settings.

19. July 8, 1955 at the Canal barn.

21. July 8, 1955 at the Canal barn.

47. August 4, 1955 at the Canal barn.

72. August 19, 1955 Riverbend, corner of St. Charles and Carrollton, outbound. On the St Charles line. Note the price of gas.

83. August 22, 1955 on the St Charles line.

84. August 22, 1955 on the St Charles line.

80. August 22, 1955. Exterior of the Carrollton Station car barn.

101. August 24, 1955. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

107. August 24, 1955. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

103. August 24, 1955. Wheel sets. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

104. August 24, 1955. Traction motors. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

102. August 24, 1955. Brill 76-E2 truck which was standard on the 800-972 class cars. The Truck is broad guage (5' 2 1/2") , mounts 33" wheels and has a 4' 10" wheelbase. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

108. August 24, 1955. Truck. Interior of the Carrollton repair shop adjacent to the car barn.

106. August 24, 1955. Car interior.

111. August 24, 1955. Rail Grinder car 29. At this time it was the oldest car in the city; formerly a passenger car of the Ford, Bacon & Davis type built in 1900 by the St. Louis Car Company.

115. Interior view of number 29.

113. Interior view of number 29.

B-214. September, 1952. Rail Grinder car 29.

116. August 23, 1955.

136. February 14, 1956. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Families dressed in cowboy costumes, many wearing masks.

134. February 14, 1956. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). More revelers. Booth at left selling parasols and costume hats.

135. February 14, 1956. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Hard to see at this resolution, but there's an African-American girl at left dressed as an indian "squaw" and a man in a polkadot clown costume standing by the streetcar door at left. Operator sporting a necklace of some sort. To the right above car 915 is a large inflated clown balloon.

24. July 8, 1955. Approaching Liberty Circle on the Canal Line.

51. August 5, 1955. The monument at Liberty Circle commemorates a post-Civil War uprising staged here against the north in 1874.

71. August 19, 1955. According to Charles, number 905 appeared in the movie, "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Other sources mention number 922. I don't know the basis of Charles' statement.)

E-3. July 26, 1955. New Orleans from above

B-187. February 17, 1953. The Napoleon Line's last day.

B-184. February 17, 1953. The Napoleon Line's last day.

B-149. 1950. South Claiborne Line.

B-204. January 4, 1953. Oops.

B-139. July, 1952. New Orleans Belt Railroad.

B-137. 1952. New Orleans Belt Railroad.

B-138. 1952. New Orleans Belt Railroad.

 

Charles Raymond Howard
High School Graduation - 1956
Circa 1998

Charles was born in Montpelier, Vermont on July 16, 1937. He started school in South Paris, Maine during WWII. After the war the family moved to Bangor, Maine, then to New Orleans for Charles' 7-12th grades (approx. 1949-1956). In September 1956 Charles began his undergraduate study at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He graduated from Cornell in 1961 and attended Rice University in 1962-1963. After graduating from Rice, he worked as an architect in Houston, Dallas, and Washington, DC. He died November 3rd, 1998. Throughout his life, Charles was an avid and skilled photographer. He applied that skill to architecture and to his many other interests, including aircraft, sailboats, railroads, historic guns, and the American Revolution and Civil War. His Civil War studies focused on the career of his great granduncle, Brevet Colonel Jacob Lyman Greene. His reseach skills and his knowledge of the fields that interested him were simply remarkable.