Thanks for the memories, gotnoshoes99! As a teenager in Kansas City, Kansas in the early 1950's, I used to walk several miles to the 18th and Minnesota streetcar stop at 5am in the morning, transfer to the Main Street streetcar on the Kansas City, Mo. side, and ride to Kansas City Union Station for a day of train watching "on the wall" below the Grand Avenue bridge. During that era, twelve [12] Railroads served the station which made for no-stop traffic arriving and departing past my perch on the wall a mere six feet away from the 5 or 6 tracks entering the East end throat of the station. I, too, recall crossing the bridge across the West bottoms in a streetcar. What a thrill that was!
Good video. I was born in KC in '55, General Hospital #2 for Colored. Part of Truman now. I don't remember street cars but I know the bus seats had ashtrays. Elevators too! I loved going Downtown. I see it now and totally gone. At Petticoat and Main was a 4-way light: you could walk in an X right in front of Macy's. Before I knew red light green light that fascinated me. That street seemed a mile wide too. I see Katz Drugstore. This was when blacks could not eat there on the main floor. We did not go to the big Katz on 10th Main but a smaller one at the foot of 12th Walnut, behind Kresge. I remember the first time my mother and I sat down to eat lunch at Kresge. Before that, you went around to a side entrance leading to the "bargain basement" where there was a tiny counter for hot dogs. No stools or seating. I did not know any better honestly. Anyway, good video.
This takes me back 66 years to when the trolly went into the tunnel, mom would say good night, and then we "woke up" at 8th & Main and walked to Macy's where Aunt Jo worked and had a soda. All for $.25
Wow! Beginning at 4:30 - the intersection of 43rd & Main St - a block from where I lived 1943-1947; What memories! My house was a short block from 42nd and Main; torn down to become a Pontiac dealer's lot for a while, and now that is gone. (Sigh) We moved to the Kansas side, and my mom rode the streetcar from 33rd & Parallel for many years, to work at Macy's at about 11th & Main. (Sigh, again). I'll never forget the grinding-screech of the motors in the old streetcars in 1943-44.
This is really awesome, what a great find those old films were, before this the streetcars were just a memory, now we can actually look back and see them in action once again thanks to you.
The thanks should really go to whomever took these films, not only for the streetcar footage but because it gives us a tiny glimps into a Kansas City that we will never see again.
Fantastic movie! Now THIS is the KC streetcar system I remember riding on as a boy in the 50’s. Not the “Streetcar” labeled KC videos that actually show LightRail cars that came much later.
I grew up my whole life in Kansas City and have always loved streetcars and rail transportation in general. I was born in January 1957 just before they stopped streetcar service in June. I still remember seeing a bunch of tracks in the street but never any cars of course. What a treasure of a find! There are books I believe on the KC streetcars but this is the first actual video I've ever seen and you have a lot apparently. I love the info on where the shots are taken even though I recognize many of them. Thanks so much for compiling and then posting all this.
One more thing. The speed of these things, assuming the film is not speeded up, seems amazing, especially in comparison with a lot of today's systems. Amazing that things could run better and faster in the 50's than today.
Actually collisions between automobiles and streetcars was not uncommon. The safety island in the middle of the street where people stood waiting to get on had a concrete barrier on one end that ended the life of many motorists. Things like these were some of the biggest excuses people used to get rid of the streetcars.
This reminds me, I got my first taste of model railroading at VandenBooms Furniture store on Broadway at roughly 40th St. In 1946-47. I discovered that in the basement was a large O-scale layout, and possibly a small area for HO layout as well (foggy memory). There were several guys always working down there, and they never paid any attention to 11-year-old me and my friend who came to look at the trains, which were almost never running while I was there.
Wow! What a tremendous find and thanks for sharing it on RUclips. I grew up in Kansas City during much of the postwar PCC streetcar era and recognize many (although certainly not all) of the locations depicted.
I love reading personal stories of ppl growing up in KC, my home for a decade. I live in Midtown and would like to hear or read of people's stories of growing up in this area during the 1940's-50's and on.
+gegeepimpin The 8th street tunnel entrance was approximately where you exit off I35 to the Lewis and Clark Viaduct. The entrance to the tunnel is covered by the concrete retaining wall along the interstate but the tunnel is still there. To see pictures of it today go to www.undergroundozarks.com/8thstreet.html
Yup. Don't forget about 9th Street Incline that the cable car trolleys and the streetcars use to use. It was basically a very steep ramp that half of the time the old cable car trolleys would have the cable snap and the trolley would go speeding down the 9th street incline. That is why the 8th street tunnel was built at a very mild incline.
Location corrections: 4:51 - 6:11 private right of way along east side of Rockhill Rd. between 43rd St. and 48th St. 6:12 - 6:17 private right of way along north side of 47th St. between The Paseo and Swope Pkwy./Benton Blvd. 6:18 - 6:47 private right of way in median of Swope Pkwy. between 47th St. and Meyer Blvd. (approximately 65th St.). Cars on Route 53 SWOPE PARK.
A real treasure trove of film. Thank you for sharing! When I was a child our family lived near the end of the Swope Park line. We didn't have a car so all of our travel started out on that line. I recognized the landmarks instantly. We boarded at the Myrtle stop on the section of private right of way along the north side of 67th St. between Cleveland and the end of the line at Elmwood (not shown in the film). At that time the other end of the line was at 19th & Minnesota in KCK utilizing the 8th St. elevated, 8th St. Tunnel and West Bottoms elevated and a streetcar reservation on the west side of the James St. bridge over the Kaw river en route. That plus the four sections of private right of way in KCMO made for a very interesting trip for a kid!
Great comment! I also have a poignant memory of this streetcar line. Prior to my family moving to Kansas City, Missouri in 1949, we stayed with relatives who lived just blocks north of downtown Kansas City, Kansas for a time in the summer of 1948. One Sunday a cousin took my sisters and I on a modern PCC streetcar from 7th & Minnesota in downtown K.C.K. to visit the Swope Park zoo in Missouri. This was the Grand Ride! and remember it vividly as if it were yesterday. Unfortu- nately, we returned via streetcar only to downtown Kansas City, MO transferring to a bus which took us back to K.C.K.
Kansas City had street car's..😳I was in Hollywood in the 80s..found a old Hollywood station in a back alley..follow the tracks all the way to Santa Monica CA..walking thru Beverley Hills was not easy..12 hour's...12.6 miles😍😍
Yes Kc had streetcars. We all groaned when they spent a lot of money to rip up/ pave over the old tracks..... Then we all laughed and shook our heads when they announced the new metro streetcar and the cost of the new tracks..... They could have simply saved the old tracks and reused them.
I grew up in KC as well. I do remember the streetcars. Once boarding I was always fascinated by all of the multi colored lights and switches on the dash of the cab. It seemed magical to a young boy like me. We discovered that if you put a penny on the tracks it would end up about the size of a nickel. One major no no was while riding your bike don't get your tire in the track...it would really ruin your day! The trolley buses that followed were a nightmare.
+ezpz2ez I always wondered what the issue was with trolley buses because from an economic and practical point of view they make more sense than streetcars, but you don't find anyone petitioning to bring back trolley buses.
The trolley buses were a mess. The overhead power transoms were constantly coming off the overhead grid. The driver spent more time off the bus repositioning the transom than he did driving the bus!
Ok, these are 8mm movies of KCPS shot by the late Art Riordan. Art owned Progressive Plastics there in KC and was a friend of mine for many years. I have a copy of these on DVD sent to me by one of Art's friends after he passed away. One of the only movies I've seen on KCPS operations. Some of this was taken on a "fan trip".
![Kansas City & Michigan 1920s in color [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wx6IVo4IxAI/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for the memories, gotnoshoes99! As a teenager in Kansas City, Kansas in the early 1950's, I used to walk several miles to the 18th and Minnesota streetcar stop at 5am in the morning, transfer to the Main Street streetcar on the Kansas City, Mo. side, and ride to Kansas City Union Station for a day of train watching "on the wall" below the Grand Avenue bridge. During that era, twelve [12] Railroads served the station which made for no-stop traffic arriving and departing past my perch on the wall a mere six feet away from the 5 or 6 tracks entering the East end throat of the station. I, too, recall crossing the bridge across the West bottoms in a streetcar. What a thrill that was!
Good video. I was born in KC in '55, General Hospital #2 for Colored. Part of Truman now. I don't remember street cars but I know the bus seats had ashtrays. Elevators too! I loved going Downtown. I see it now and totally gone. At Petticoat and Main was a 4-way light: you could walk in an X right in front of Macy's. Before I knew red light green light that fascinated me. That street seemed a mile wide too. I see Katz Drugstore. This was when blacks could not eat there on the main floor. We did not go to the big Katz on 10th Main but a smaller one at the foot of 12th Walnut, behind Kresge. I remember the first time my mother and I sat down to eat lunch at Kresge. Before that, you went around to a side entrance leading to the "bargain basement" where there was a tiny counter for hot dogs. No stools or seating. I did not know any better honestly. Anyway, good video.
Ashtrays in the buses! Everyone smoked. Born in KC 1950, rode "trolley buses" as a kid. Thanks for your post.
Tony, thanks for sharing. It adds a lot of detail and perspective to things like this. Thanks!
This takes me back 66 years to when the trolly went into the tunnel, mom would say good night, and then we "woke up" at 8th & Main and walked to Macy's where Aunt Jo worked and had a soda. All for $.25
Paul Soptick I was a kid but remember this. Steve medley
See my comment, just above yours.
Wow! Beginning at 4:30 - the intersection of 43rd & Main St - a block from where I lived 1943-1947; What memories! My house was a short block from 42nd and Main; torn down to become a Pontiac dealer's lot for a while, and now that is gone. (Sigh) We moved to the Kansas side, and my mom rode the streetcar from 33rd & Parallel for many years, to work at Macy's at about 11th & Main. (Sigh, again). I'll never forget the grinding-screech of the motors in the old streetcars in 1943-44.
How could a system such as this be disbanded? Awesome!
This is really awesome, what a great find those old films were, before this the streetcars were just a memory, now we can actually look back and see them in action once again thanks to you.
The thanks should really go to whomever took these films, not only for the streetcar footage but because it gives us a tiny glimps into a Kansas City that we will never see again.
Fantastic movie!
Now THIS is the KC streetcar system I remember riding on as a boy in the 50’s. Not the “Streetcar” labeled KC videos that actually show LightRail cars that came much later.
I grew up my whole life in Kansas City and have always loved streetcars and rail transportation in general. I was born in January 1957 just before they stopped streetcar service in June. I still remember seeing a bunch of tracks in the street but never any cars of course. What a treasure of a find! There are books I believe on the KC streetcars but this is the first actual video I've ever seen and you have a lot apparently. I love the info on where the shots are taken even though I recognize many of them. Thanks so much for compiling and then posting all this.
One more thing. The speed of these things, assuming the film is not speeded up, seems amazing, especially in comparison with a lot of today's systems. Amazing that things could run better and faster in the 50's than today.
Actually collisions between automobiles and streetcars was not uncommon. The safety island in the middle of the street where people stood waiting to get on had a concrete barrier on one end that ended the life of many motorists. Things like these were some of the biggest excuses people used to get rid of the streetcars.
"An elegant train ride, from a more civilized age..." -Obi-Wan Trainmaster
This reminds me, I got my first taste of model railroading at VandenBooms Furniture store on Broadway at roughly 40th St. In 1946-47. I discovered that in the basement was a large O-scale layout, and possibly a small area for HO layout as well (foggy memory). There were several guys always working down there, and they never paid any attention to 11-year-old me and my friend who came to look at the trains, which were almost never running while I was there.
Wow! What a tremendous find and thanks for sharing it on RUclips. I grew up in Kansas City during much of the postwar PCC streetcar era and recognize many (although certainly not all) of the locations depicted.
This is awesome. Where did you get this film?
I found it in a box under the train layout in the train room at the Irene B. French Community center in Merriam Ks.
Never knew that city had air electric PCCs. Always thought they only had all electrics in the fleet.
13:21 That strange contortionism would break a normal passenger train! Wow!
I love reading personal stories of ppl growing up in KC, my home for a decade. I live in Midtown and would like to hear or read of people's stories of growing up in this area during the 1940's-50's and on.
I wish I could do a time laps, I would like to go to the west bottoms and see the locations. Where is @1:34?
+gegeepimpin The 8th street tunnel entrance was approximately where you exit off I35 to the Lewis and Clark Viaduct. The entrance to the tunnel is covered by the concrete retaining wall along the interstate but the tunnel is still there. To see pictures of it today go to www.undergroundozarks.com/8thstreet.html
@@gotnoshoes99 looked for it many of times... where is the west bottom entrance?
GM put them out of service put everyone in cars bought the company that made streetcars closed them up
There was a story about the Tunnel years ago. It's still there, blocked off. Never realized the ramp down to the Bottoms was built for Streetcars!
Yup. Don't forget about 9th Street Incline that the cable car trolleys and the streetcars use to use. It was basically a very steep ramp that half of the time the old cable car trolleys would have the cable snap and the trolley would go speeding down the 9th street incline. That is why the 8th street tunnel was built at a very mild incline.
Location corrections: 4:51 - 6:11 private right of way along east side of Rockhill Rd. between 43rd St. and 48th St. 6:12 - 6:17 private right of way along north side of 47th St. between The Paseo and Swope Pkwy./Benton Blvd. 6:18 - 6:47 private right of way in median of Swope Pkwy. between 47th St. and Meyer Blvd. (approximately 65th St.). Cars on Route 53 SWOPE PARK.
+William Norton Thank you, I stand corrected.
A real treasure trove of film. Thank you for sharing! When I was a child our family lived near the end of the Swope Park line. We didn't have a car so all of our travel started out on that line. I recognized the landmarks instantly. We boarded at the Myrtle stop on the section of private right of way along the north side of 67th St. between Cleveland and the end of the line at Elmwood (not shown in the film). At that time the other end of the line was at 19th & Minnesota in KCK utilizing the 8th St. elevated, 8th St. Tunnel and West Bottoms elevated and a streetcar reservation on the west side of the James St. bridge over the Kaw river en route. That plus the four sections of private right of way in KCMO made for a very interesting trip for a kid!
Great comment! I also have a poignant memory of this streetcar line. Prior to my family moving to Kansas City, Missouri in 1949, we stayed with relatives who lived just blocks north of downtown Kansas City, Kansas for a time in the summer of 1948. One Sunday a cousin took my sisters and I on a modern PCC streetcar from 7th & Minnesota in downtown K.C.K. to visit the Swope Park zoo in Missouri. This was the Grand Ride! and remember it vividly as if it were yesterday. Unfortu- nately, we returned via streetcar only to downtown Kansas City, MO transferring to a bus which took us back to K.C.K.
Where is @ 04:55?
Brookside
Where in brookside @@ranchobob48
OMG! Thank you! Memories of running up and down on Main with my grandma!
Kansas City had street car's..😳I was in Hollywood in the 80s..found a old Hollywood station in a back alley..follow the tracks all the way to Santa Monica CA..walking thru Beverley Hills was not easy..12 hour's...12.6 miles😍😍
Yes Kc had streetcars. We all groaned when they spent a lot of money to rip up/ pave over the old tracks..... Then we all laughed and shook our heads when they announced the new metro streetcar and the cost of the new tracks..... They could have simply saved the old tracks and reused them.
I grew up in KC as well. I do remember the streetcars. Once boarding I was always fascinated by all of the multi colored lights and switches on the dash of the cab. It seemed magical to a young boy like me. We discovered that if you put a penny on the tracks it would end up about the size of a nickel. One major no no was while riding your bike don't get your tire in the track...it would really ruin your day! The trolley buses that followed were a nightmare.
+ezpz2ez I always wondered what the issue was with trolley buses because from an economic and practical point of view they make more sense than streetcars, but you don't find anyone petitioning to bring back trolley buses.
The trolley buses were a mess. The overhead power transoms were constantly coming off the overhead grid. The driver spent more time off the bus repositioning the transom than he did driving the bus!
I rode them all the time I Chicago, and that seldom happened.
I too, lived in Kansas City on two different trolley bus lines and encountered this problem only occasionally.
Those great old 1950s autos! ALL would be worth $15-20,000 and up, now! It ran past the Twin Oaks apartments (now demolished, of course)!
Ok, these are 8mm movies of KCPS shot by the late Art Riordan. Art owned Progressive Plastics there in KC and was a friend of mine for many years. I have a copy of these on DVD sent to me by one of Art's friends after he passed away. One of the only movies I've seen on KCPS operations. Some of this was taken on a "fan trip".
Is the quality better than these? I guess we should be happy we have any footage of this at all.
Put it online