It is midafternoon on April 2, 2006, as Perley Thomas cars 930 and 947 meet along Canal Street.  The route signs show Special, since the cars still do not have Canal line signs.  If you know the code, you can tell which branch of the line each car is serving: run numbers in the 30s go down the Carrollton branch to City Park, while the lower run numbers operate to the Cemeteries terminal.  Another problem evident in this picture is that the passenger loading platforms along most of the line outside the central business district were designed for use from the left-hand doors on the cars.  However, since their conversion to one-man operation in the 1970s, the Perley Thomas cars have no control over the left-hand doors at the front of the cars.  So either passengers must walk around the car and board precariously at the right-front door, or the motorman must walk to the back of the car to operate the left-rear doors.  But everyone “makes do” with the situation. — Earl Hampton photo