Further to Hugh Odom's thread in December, I've visited the two cars which now form a dwelling near the 'neck' of Charleston, and have 14 pics available to anyone on request.

We are trying to get the pics hosted online so you can 'point and click' as opposed to downloading an email. The whole file is about 3.4 megabytes.

Jim Vaitkunas believes that these 40ft cars were built by the Cincinnati Car Co. in 1918 for a Charleston 16 car order. The cars were delivered as a centre door design and had an all up weight of 16-18 tons. Some of the cars were built as trailers but subsequently motorised.

The trucks are no longer present but probably had 28 inch wheels and low HP motors. The cars are in good overall condition and the local developer of the site says that he will save them with a view to restoration. The frames have only surface rust from age.

There are no trolleys running in Charleston at present (unless you count the gas truck conversion shipping tourists round downtown) but I discovered about 5 feet of 2 trolley rails still embedded in the sidewalk on the junction of North Market and Church. In addition, the long straight road used by my hosts to drive into town is called 'Trolley' and has stores along it with such names as 'Trolley Exchange'.

Thanks to Hugh for the heads-up and Jim for the technical info.

Any questions, please ask. I would have to say that trolleys are not my area of expertise so corrections are welcome!

John

John was kind enough to send his pictures to me so I could include them on the SC Rail History site. Here's a direct link to the trolley article:

http://206.74.77.132/~scrailhistory/articlelive/articles/15/1/Two-Charleston-trolleys-located