According to this 2004 photo, Charlotte, NC is rebuilding its original trolley carbarn for its new operation. Anyone know if it is finished yet?http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?march04/03-22-04/p04-03-20-003-Charlotte-Trolley-new-old-barn-renavation.jpg

Questions:1) Are the rails still imbedded in the concrete floor?2) How will the carbarn be connected to the existing line?3) How many heritage cars will be built?4) Are the cars going to be Gomaco products?Thanks!

Jim - I am not officially involved now as I was when I first restored car 85 (can it be more than 15 years ago?) i recall the floor was smooth - but there may have been tracks covered over. Duke Power was using the facility for storage space at the time, and it all couldn't be seen. The carbarn is adjacent to the existing line, the existing line just runs behind the structure so cars will have to come in from the back, rather than from in street trackage facing South Blvd. I was there Tuesday on other business, and would have been pleased to ask if I had known of your interest. In casual conversation with their ED, i do not know that any decision has yet been committed as far as cars or providers. Hopefully, other potential builders will have the chance to bid. They did ask me about journal box castings from Kershaw / Edwards, but the person with specs wasn't there, so i have no idea exactly what they need. They are apparently helping some interests in Charleston start to work on a new / old system as well. Best of luck to them - and what a fine location for one.dave

I go to Charlotte once a year to see the Panthers. But I don't recall ever seeing this building. Where exactly is it?

Between the track and South Blvd near Bland Street. Going south under the Morehead St overpass, ahead a block or so on the right. It looks like a 1960 plumbing supply with an orangey brick plain facade with gunslit windows in smoked glass, nothing like its original appearance. Incidentally, the Panthers facilities erased the remains of the Charlotte terminal of the Piedmont and Northern. dave

They already have 3 or 4 Gomaco cars, which they were using when I stopped in on the way home from Spencer earlier this year. The 85 is seldom used these days. The Gomacos are nice cars, if a little small. I wish they'd get all Gomacos (or Edwards trolleys) instead of modern LRVs once the line goes into full operation.While I love the idea of a heritage trolley in Charlotte, my opinion of the operation is that it's the most opulent trolley to nowhere I've ever seen. I also find it rather silly that a TROLLEY has to be flagged across a street by a City police officer. That's by no means a slam against the heritage trolleys, it's more a comment on Charlotte politics.

And Matt doesn't even live here! Believe me, from a residents POV the political missteps are frustrating, but in reality, nobody at CATS knows how to run trolleys like they did in the old days (with a few necessary modernizations), but are relying on out of town major transit consulting and engineering firms who are making it into a modern light rail system that might be useful in a couple decades. Recent elections had some transit related content. The most useful corridor for trolleys (or light rail) is pretty much from town east along the route 74 (Independence Blvd) corridor through Matthews to Monroe. the southern orientation (route 29 corridor towards Pineville) is being built instead. This is probably because there was an existing ROW that could be got intact, rather than having to acquire one out the better route. The 74 corridor has been undergoing a massive conversion to limited access freeway, however, and it would have been nice if rail could have been included in the work. There is still no clarity about where historic trolleys might be used, and where LRVs would go. Ironically, over 15 years ago when I was restoring car 85, the street destruction department was removing the trolley tracks from town to the east side streetcar suburb Plaza Midwood, which now wants trolleys back, and would have been a start down the best alignment for a useful line. Now the timetable is about a decade to replace what could have just stayed under asphalt for another 35 years just fine, and nobody is projecting a probable cost. CATS and Charlotte Trolley are both involved, which can complicate things, relative to a single operating entity. In fairness to CATS, they don't do much in terms of actual sharing of technical information during the public meetings to talk about transit future in Charlotte, so there may be other forces at work we are ignorant about. In fairness to the public, CATS might well want to be more forthcoming with this information. It seems to me that there are many good reasons to build a LRV system to the suburban sprawl with park and ride lots, while also developing an in street trolley system to use as a redevelopment tool to enhance and protect the older, in town middle class neighborhoods now listed as threatened, the threats mostly coming from the actions or lack thereof of the city itself. What actually comes about wil be interesing to see, and probably many years too late. dave

Looking north across the border, that's the thing I see as the poorest part of the so-calleed "planning." Instead of building the light rail line from where the people are to where they want to go, they're building it where there was an existing right-of-way. Now, granted, South Blvd. is heavily built up, but it's far from pedestrian friendly, and the ROW misses the real central city area by several blocks.That said, ridership on the Gomaco trolleys seems to be pretty good, at least on weekends. It was a late Sunday afternoon when I was there and the cars were SRO. My gut tells me that the new LRVs are going to be essentially empty, though, because most of the riders seemed to be tourists. Tourists prefer old-looking cars to modern LRVs. It's a pity, really, because Charlotte has a potential bonanza by making the line a purely heritage trolley and using all Gomaco or Edwards cars. As a modern light rail line, I think it's going to be a case study in what NOT to do.