Just a couple things. First, I revamped the
ERR Wikipedia article that I made a while back, so now there's more info in the history section, and more pictures as well.
Fun fact I learned while researching for it (and also put in the article): In 1938, an Engineer consultant was hired to analyze the findings of a 1937 administration report that recommended transitioning to trolley buses. His report not only supported the 1937 report's recommendations, but went as far as suggesting that Edmonton take the streetcar tracks off of the High Level Bridge, and repurpose that right of way for trolley buses! I am not sure what the implications would be for the CP line, but the city did send someone to Toronto and Montreal to consult with experts from CP and the Canadian Bridge Company. Fortunately, it never came to fruition even though the city supported gradually moving away from streetcars. Just imagine if we were stuck with a two-level road bridge. Even if the upper portion remained as dedicated bus lanes to this day, seeing motor vehicles up there would really take away from the charm. There's something special about having a bridge here that supports road and rail vehicles as well as pedestrians. And if Edmonton used the top deck for trolley buses when CP trains stopped using it in the 80s, I doubt that the CP ROW would have stayed unused for long enough to get scooped up by the ERRS; Edmonton would most certainly convert is either to another bus lane, or a car lane. And streetcars > buses.
EDIT: I forgot that they're on here too, but thanks to
@_Citizen_Dane_ for pointing me towards the 1938 Wilson report on another website!
Secondly, here are some pics I took from the book Edmonton's Electric Railway; one of the authors (Colin Hatcher) is actually the ERRS Archivist (but I got these pics from a copy I bought before joining).
Apparently, streetcars and trains could cross the HLB before cars and pedestrians could!
You can see a streetcar near the rear of this train, so this picture shows just how close they got on that bridge.
When Edmonton #1 first went across the HLB, it had to tow a diesel generator to supply its power because the lines weren't up yet.
Why didn't they add overhead power lines back then? The streetcar was restored by some interested ETS staff members and volunteers from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in the 1960s, after sitting outside in the Cromdale transit yard for 11 years and getting battered by weather and vandals. The initial restoration didn't include electrical work or putting it back on trucks. Originally, that was all that was supposed to happen to it; Hatcher's book says that after it was displayed on a float for the 100th annual Klondike Days Parade, it was kept inside the Cromdale garage and a sign was put on it saying "Held for archives".
But when Edmonton's 75th anniversary as a city rolled around in 1979, more interested ETS employees and volunteers -including some former ERR motormen- restored it to operation condition and it took people for trips over the HLB from October 6-8, 1979, which was a long weekend. But the ERRS was only formed afterward, when many of these volunteers asked themselves "what now"? once the trips were all done. There was no active plan to keep running streetcars on the HLB. The ERRS operated regular service at Fort Edmonton Park (taking Edmonton #1 with them) for around 11 years before coming to the HLB in 1995, when they were asked about operating streetcar service from Old Strathcona to Grandin (now Government Centre) for the Fringe Festival. Their car on that line, Osaka 247, also needed to use a diesel generator for the first year of operations; ERRS volunteers strung the overhead wire next year, and utilized the original power poles on the HLB's upper deck since they were not removed after streetcar service stopped (Only one or two poles, I think on the north end of the bridge, are replacements).
Going back to the 75th Anniversary trips, the city wanted their commemorative picture of the event to look authentic. So they retouched the picture... see if you can notice how.
This next picture isn't from the book, but it's still cool. In 1979, before driving it on CP and CN tracks to the HLB line, the volunteers tested it on the LRT tracks. So there's even a picture of it in the LRT tunnel!
Last but not least, there was also a picture in the book of the "typical" driving area in an Edmonton streetcar.
I'm putting that here just to show you how authentic a ride on a FEP or HLB streetcar really is. For comparison, here's a shot of the driving area in Edmonton #33 that I took a few weeks ago.
On the left is the controller, which controls how much electricity gets through the resistor grids - the more power gets through, the faster you go. The black handle on the right applies the air brakes, and the gauge above it tells us how much air is in the tank. The one thing in the old picture that's not in mine is the reverse key; it's a metal insert that gets pushed into the black mount you see on the right side of the controller. If the key points forward, then you go forward, if it's pointing back, you go in reverse, and if it's not in there at all, then the controller's handle won't budge. So as you can see, how they are driven now is exactly the same as how they were driven back then. We have a 1919 instruction document from an American streetcar system that's been uploaded on the website, and it's actually quite useful for new motormen like myself; all the same principals apply today.
Just to end on a lighter note, this guy's speech (which I got from the book 'Ride of the Century') made me laugh at some parts. "You can either lose your right leg, or your left leg..."
" It should go ok though, as long as I don't hit anyone. I've already finished my training shifts, the certification run during park hours is just the final test to make sure you're good to do it alone. That's especially important since the FEP streetcars don't have conductors, so on days where the park is open but restoration and maintenance isn't going on in the streetcar barn, you'd literally be the only one from the ERRS in the park.
