Laconia tram
The city of Laconia in the US state of New Hampshire had a streetcar operation from 1882 to 1925 .
history
In 1881 local entrepreneurs founded the Laconia and Lake Village Horse Railroad to build and operate a horse-drawn railway between their eponymous towns, Laconia and Lake Village (now Lakeport ). It went into service from the Willard Hotel on South Main Street in Laconia to the steamboat docks in Lake Village in August 1882 for a distance of 3.3 km. The train ran on tracks with a gauge of three feet (914 mm). The route ran from South Main Street through North Main Street, Pleasant Street, Depot Square (Laconia Station), Church Street and Union Avenue to Lake Village. The trains were parked in a depot on South Main Street near the Willard Hotel. Later, a reciprocating loop was built through Laconia, which led back to South Main Street via South Main Street, Garfield Street, Lincoln Street, Pearl Street and Court Street and, among other things, tied the town's cemetery. Rail traffic was idle in winter, and passengers were transported in two horse-drawn sleighs owned by the railway.
In 1898 the railway company decided to electrify operations, also under pressure from the local press. The company was then renamed Laconia Street Railway Company . From the beginning of September 1898, electric railcars ran the route, which was now operated all year round. At the same time, a new depot was opened on Union Avenue at Lyman Street. The railway was extended in June 1899 along Lake Paugus to The Weirs (now Weirs Beach), where the terminus was on Lakeside Avenue near the train station. This new section was only served from April to October. The total length of the route was now 13.45 kilometers. At the end of March 1903, the operation of the railway was initially stopped to convert the tracks to standard gauge, which was completed by the end of June 1903.
The three turnouts of the single-track railway were on Union Avenue south of Gilford Avenue, at the intermediate terminus at Lakeport about 1200 meters north of Lakeport Square near Clark Avenue, and near Langley's Cove on Lake Paugus, about halfway between Lakeport and The Weirs. Sidings for emergency vehicles were located at Laconia train station and at Bayside Cemetery north of Lakeport.
In July 1918 the loop in Laconia was shut down. The cars only went to the corner of South Main Street and Court Street, but the route from Court Street to Pearl Street was still occasionally used at events on the Fair Grounds. The tracks in South Main Street also remained and were used again in May 1919 to the corner of Garfield Street.
In May 1925, the railway company acquired two buses and a third was added in June. They were used on the route to The Weirs. On August 9, 1925, the trams ran as planned for the last time. Tram cars were still used for a few weeks if the buses were insufficient or had to be repaired. In the autumn of 1925 the line was closed and the overhead line dismantled.
business
The electric tram ran every 20 minutes, with the loop in Laconia initially being used alternately. After this led to confusion among the passengers, all the cars were soon running clockwise. The trains ran simultaneously from Lakeport and at the corner of Pearl Street and Academy Street in Laconia, from 6 a.m. to 10:20 p.m., on Saturdays until 10:40 p.m. The section from Lakeport to The Weirs was only used in the summer half of the year, usually from April, when the route was clear of snow, until the first major onset of winter, usually in October. In April, there were often only a few trips a day to The Weirs, from May onwards there was a car every hour from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. In spring and autumn, passengers had to change trains in Lakeport. The route between Lakeport and The Weirs was served by the smaller two-axle vehicles, while the larger four-axle vehicles drove between Laconia and Lakeport. From the beginning of June the trams usually ran every 40 minutes to The Weirs, and every 20 minutes in the afternoon from mid-June to the end of June.
From 1906, general cargo was also transported to The Weirs in the summer months, but this hardly generated any profit.
Fares
Initially, a trip cost six cents, with 5-trip tickets being sold for 25 cents. On August 1, 1917, the price of a trip was raised to seven cents. 20-trip cards for commuters were now sold for one dollar, from December 1918 for 1.20 dollars. From August 1, 1919, the railway company raised fares again. A single trip now cost ten cents and 5-trip tickets were offered for 40 cents. In the 1920s, prices were raised again.
vehicles
When the railway opened in 1882, two closed and two open horse-drawn carriages, 14 horses, a flat wagon, a snow plow and several work vehicles were available. One of the closed cars, No. 8, was converted into an electric multiple unit (No. 13) when the company was electrified. The railway also acquired the closed two-axle railcars 11 and 15, as well as the open two-axle railcars 12 and 14 and the open four-axle railcars 16, 18, 20 and 22 for electrification. Car 13 was scrapped a few years later and four-axle closed railcars were in the Vehicle fleet added. One of them, which was given the number 13, was bought second-hand by the Concord tram , the others, numbers 17 and 19, were brand new. The latter was not added until 1907. A few years after the railway was electrified, the company bought an electric snow plow, which was given the number 1. When the railway was changed to standard gauge in 1903, all existing vehicles were also changed. In 1906 the railway acquired a general cargo wagon with an unknown number.
Except for the car purchased by Concord, all of these cars came from the local Laconia Car Company . After this, however, only produced wooden wagons after 1918, the railway company acquired its two new closed steel multiple units of the Birney Safety Car type (No. 21 and 23) from the American Car Company in St. Louis in 1919 . Two more, numbered 25 and 27, were purchased by Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield in 1920 .
In the early days of the railway until about the gauging, the courses were painted brick red to chestnut brown. Then they were painted olive green. The cars acquired in 1919 and 1920 were again red.
After the line was closed, the only a few years old railcars 21, 23, 25 and 27 with the new numbers 72, 74, 76 and 78 were sold to the York Utilities Corporation in Maine. Railcar 17 was given to a private person, railcar 19 presumably sold to another railway company. The remaining wagons were scrapped.
literature
- Harold H. Young, 1954: The Story of the Laconia Street Railway. Laconia NH.