There was some question as to what Radio Shack planned to do with the subway line when they started construction of their new headquarters. I found this announcement on www.fortwortharchitecture.com, but as of yet I do not have any confirmation that this is true. We are planning a tour of the line as part of the 2002 ARM Convention, so if you want to see this system before it is gone, you might start thinking about joining us in October.

Radio Shack announced that it will close the
Tandy Subway when construction starts on its
new headquarters in December. No exact date has
been given for the closure, but it will be
coming at some point during the construction of
the new campus.

This is the end of an era. I still think that
the subway system is the only privately owned
one.


Dallas 2002 ARM Convention
tnold@bigfoot.com

I've never heard of this operation; tell us more!

Wash Post article
eledbetter@rypn.org

You would think thhat a retailer known for electric gadgets would want their own subway.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> I've never heard of this operation; tell us
> more!

The Tandy subway was built in the 1960's to serve a department store that was on the site of the current Radio Shack facility. It's a small subway line operated with a handful of boxy-looking cars that were rebuilt from ex-Washington DC PCC streetcars. Below is a link to a page with photos and some information on Tandy.

Frank Hicks


New York City Subway Resources - Tandy Subway
frank@gats.com

> Radio Shack announced that it will close the
> Tandy Subway when construction starts on its
> new headquarters in December. No exact date
> has been given for the closure, but it will be
> coming at some point during the construction
> of the new campus.

Fort Worth has been discussing the idea of trolley service between downtown and the historic Stockyards District for quite awhile. An offer by Tandy to donate the subway--cars, overhead, fixed plant & all--could be the impetus to achieve the Tandy trolley's preservation and help implement the service simultaneously.

hi_plain@yahoo.com

I grew up in Fort Worth, and have alot of fond memories of riding those PCC's with Mom.. the line connected a HUGE parking lot built in a floodplain, with the basement of the Leonard Brother's Department Store..... anyone could ride to shop at any store downtown, you just had to walk through Leonard Brother's to get there.. Leonard's was bought out by Tandy, and the "Tandy Center" built on the location of the old dept. store..
Now, the reason for this post, every vital downtown has parking shortages, this includes Ft. Worth, why in blazes would the city want to abandon a line that was capital intensive to build that connected the center of downtown to parking on land that can't be used for anything BUT parking to use those "boxy" (read: ugly) cars to connect to the stockyards area which:
#1 is about 2 miles from downtown
#2 Does not have unused rail connections directly to downtown (the topography rules some of this, downtown is built on a fairly large bluff rising up from the Trinity River, which would have to be crossed to get to the stockyards), and
#3, the stockyards doesn't really have that much of a parking problem....
It might be possible to connect that huge parking lot to the stockyards by using the bridge and track now owned by the Tarantula - a former (Frisco?) interchage track that runs slap through the middle of a large park -NIMBI's take note here, but that ain't downtown.
as a side note, I also have some not so fond memories of early work on T&P 610, the loke was parked right next to, and generally downwind of, the branding pens at the stockyards, BEFORE it digressed into nothing more than a tourist attraction.

> Fort Worth has been discussing the idea of
> trolley service between downtown and the
> historic Stockyards District for quite
> awhile. An offer by Tandy to donate the
> subway--cars, overhead, fixed plant &
> all--could be the impetus to achieve the
> Tandy trolley's preservation and help
> implement the service simultaneously.

The FWTA and the City have engaged an engineering firm that is at the end of a comprehensive alternatives study required by the FTA that will guide what kind of operation is to be installed. I think the study is leaning towards light rail, bus rapid transit or modern streetcar. I think the FTA is making them put in something looking more at long term and regional requirements instead of a limited tourist-type line. (One wonders how Tampa and Little Rock were able to start with streetcars instead of being pushed into light rail). You might refer to www.fwtaa.org for more information on this project.

I don't know that the subway cars are suited for use on anything but reserved right-of-way and they are no spring chickens. I heard Tandy was looking for replacement cars a few years back.

What I would recommend is that some up and coming local preservation group - like, oh, for instance... North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc., who is already working to restore two original Fort Worth streetcars and needs a place to run them, would be a good candidate to preserve and re-use the assets of the Tandy Subway.

Dallas 2002 ARM Convention - October 23-26, 2002 -
tnold@bigfoot.com