Tacoma Washington Streetcar Restoration

Cordicron · **Joined:** Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:24 pm **Posts:** 58

http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/portals ... &id=333569

Photos of their work
http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/pages/rockportst/

Trolleyguy · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:53 pm

The article is almost 3 years old. Any recent news?

Cordicron · **Joined:** Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:24 pm **Posts:** 58

Sorry I hadn't noticed the date. A Google search turned up nothing newer this this article. Their website http://www.historicrailway.com/biography.html has no mention of it either.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

That site is rather confusing and hard to navigate. However, there apparently is current news. I can't link to it since the whole site is in frames, so here's the info:

Quote:

Citizens initiative aims to build Tacoma streetcar

A 1908 turtleback streetcar that once operated in Tacoma now sits in an open field in Rockport, Wash. The streetcar is owned by Tom and Vince Mendenhall, father-and-son owners of Historic Railway Restoration, which is based in Arlington, Wash. A citizens initiative was filed on Feb. 11 to build a streetcar line in Tacoma.

Feb 22 2010

A group calling itself "The Committee to Build the Streetcar" announced today it has submitted a citizens petition to the City of Tacoma aimed to expand Sound Transit's LINK light rail line to Sixth Avenue, purchase and restore an original streetcar that once ran in Tacoma, and create a transit commission.

According to streetcar advocates Morgan Alexander and Chris Karnes, who wrote and submitted the petition Feb. 11, funding for the plan would come from a so-called Transportation Benefit District (TBD), which calls for a .2 cents per $10 dollar purchase sales tax within the TBD.

"We feel the time is right for city residents to get involved and help create something amazing for Tacoma's future," said Alexander in a statement. He pointed to the Sound Transit ST2 ballot measure, which voters approved in 2008 and provides over $80 million in matching funds for expanding Tacoma LINK, as an impetus for moving forward. "There are a lot of different pieces in play right now. There's ST2, Pierce Transit doing some major introspection, and the Tacoma City Manager has been busy lining up partners and funding."

The organizers will need to gather over 4,000 signatures by the end of summer. An organizing kick-off party is planned for late March.

For more information, visit http://www.BuildTheStreetcar.com .

Frank Hicks · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:10 pm

The two Tacoma streetcars in the article, cited as being stored in Rockport (as of 2007), aren't the cars currently located at the Ballard Terminal locomotive track in Fremont, are they? There appears to be a pair of streetcar bodies - a Stone & Webster "turtleback" and a Birney - stored on the Ballard Terminal and the coincidence makes me curious.