We are at the outer end of Canal Street, at City Park Ave., on Tuesday, June 10, 1947. These eight pictures, all from the camera of one photographer, appear to have been taken in the order shown, within a short time of one another. The time sequence has been estimated from the shadows, which place the pictures in the morning.
In the first picture, the motorman of Cemeteries car 859, run 21, looks back into his car, awaiting the conductor's signal to proceed. The car is just starting an inbound run on the Cemeteries line; its terminal is just out of sight, around the corner to our left. Note the dent in the front dash of car 859. The automobile that argued with this streetcar probably fared much worse! The most frequent cause of such accidents was an auto pulling across the neutral ground in front of an approaching streetcar. The wooden car stop post in the middle of the neutral ground implies that this location is a car stop in both directions.
The second picture shows Cemeteries car 879, run 18, at the same car stop. In the right background, car 851 on either the Cemeteries or West End line is just turning left into City Park Ave. to proceed to Julia St.
In the third picture, car 896, run 13, has paused at the same stop. This car is displaying a Canal route sign (center window) and a Cemeteries destination sign (right front window), which is unusual; more typically, the Cemeteries sign is in the center window, and the sign in the side window is blank, as in other examples in this group. (The official name of the route was Canal-Cemeteries, but in most contexts, it was usually called simply Cemeteries.)
The fourth picture shows Cemeteries car 823, run 23, stopping in the same location. A moment later (fifth picture), West End car 830, run 30, pulled up next to car 823, outbound toward its terminal at West End. It will turn left here, and proceed to Julia St., then past the Cemeteries terminal, continuing to the end of the line at Lake Ponchartrain. Through the right hand rear window, we can see the conductor of car 830 with his right arm raised to the signal bell cord, ready to sound “two bells” to his motorman to proceed.
In the seventh picture, we see a small crowd of riders walking away from car 907, outbound on the West End line as run 32. The rear doors are closing, and the car will probably pull out and turn left in a few moments. To the left of car 907, we can see part of car 822, inbound on West End or Cemeteries.
The bottom picture features outbound West End car 854, run 33, with passengers leaving the car at both front and rear doors.
In all of these pictures, note how little automobile traffic there is. That would change drastically over the next few years! — Fred Victor DuBrutz photos
