Each January from 1985-1997, I rode on Amtrak's California Zephr to San
Francisco to cover Apple's MacWorld Expo - until the last year when we went down the Rockies with no brakes. One of my treats while staying in the city was taking the trolley down to the San Francisco Bay. The trolley stopped right by the St. Francis, the hotel of my choice . I always stayed there because it was the only hotel that withstood the 1905 Earthquake.

Over that same period MacWorld was held in Boston every August. Again, I always made sure I took a trolley, the "T," while in Beantown.

I'm too young to remember when Trolleys were the only way to get around
Troy. The last trolley ran in Troy in 1933, but I'm never amazed that one of the first things old timers talk to me about is riding the rails.

I would give up my car in a second if there was a good trolley system like
the old days.

If you were near downtown River Street during the last couple of months, you probably noticed that construction workers removed the street pavement right down to the old cobblestones. Running along the middle of the street you could see parts of the old rails for Troy's trolley system.

Troy's first sixty years saw horses, wagons, and stagecoaches as the
principal way to get around in the city. It was1860 when the Troy and
Lansingburgh Horse Railway was created by a few enterprising local folks who saw that coaches were not able to keep up with a growing population

On July 31, 1860, the Common Council gave this new company permission to lay a single track down River, Adam and Second Streets to a point near where the South End Tavern exists today. On August 30, 1861, the first horse drawn car went over the route. Low in height, broad and roomy, it was painted red, like the other five that would make up the fleet that became known as the "Red Line." The line was extended to Waterford in 1862. During the month of November, eighty daily trips were made on this small route which totaled 6 and half miles from Waterford to the Wyantskill.

The Troy and Cohoes Horse Car Railroad, called the "White" line followed on February 11, 1862 and made the first trip on October 10, 1863. It went from the east side of the Rensselaer & Saratoga Bridge (Green Island Bridge of today) through Green Island to the Champlain Canal at Cohoes and to Ferry Street in Troy.

The Troy and Albia Horse Railroad Company went from the center of Troy three and half miles up to Albia and was organized in January 1866. This was followed by the "Blue" line, where Cohoes connected to Lansingburgh in 1880 via Ontario Street, Simmons, and VanSchaick Islands intersecting with the Lansingburgh-Troy line near 112th Street. A line connecting Cohoes to Waterford began in 1884 and was known as the "Green" line.

The Troy and Lansingburgh Railway increased its reach throughout the city
and by 1886 had 206 men employed, owned 95 cars, and 468 horses. Car barns were in both ends of the city. According to historian Rutherford Hayner, where this info comes from, more than 5000 people rode the horse railroads in 1885.

On September 29, 1889 the northern part of the Troy-Lansingburgh road from 101st Street to the Waterford Bridge was electrified using the Sprague Single Overhead Wire System. The horse trolley had seen its day. The street railway companies then merged under the Troy City Railway system.

In 1900 the trolley lines of Troy, Albany and surrounding areas merged into the United Traction Company. By now over 100 miles of territory were covered by trolleys and interurbans (trolleys that went between cities).

Only 6 years later the Delaware & Hudson Company purchased United Traction. The D&H didn't like the fact that the extensive trolley system was competing with their intercity routes. The D&H and NY Central developed an Albany-Troy "Belt Line" with 30 trains travelling each weekday between Albany and Troy and suburbs only 25 minutes apart.

The writing on the wall for trolleys came in October, 1924 when a trackless trolley was demonstrated in Troy. Buses would soon kill off the trolley, after all they were not confined to restrictive and costly tracks. Even Lansingburgh got its own bus system, the Fifth Avenue Bus Company in 1915.

While it seems romantic riding the trolley cars, my friend Mal Hormats tells me that the rides could get somewhat out of hand. He use to commute on the old Hoosick Street trolley at 5 cents a pop as a kid. In 1933, one got away from the motorman and hit the building on the southwest corner of Hoosick and River. The motorman was killed, the trolley smashed, but hardly a brick was chipped on the building.

It would be a fitting tribute to the history of Troy transportation if the section of River Street from First to Congress was closed off, brought back to cobblestones (that are underneath) exposing the trolley line, and then place an old Troy trolley on it as a tourist attraction.

Now where would we get an old Troy trolley, you ask? The Mayor and I know where one rests waiting to be rescued.

Got history? Contact don at drittner@aol.com or 251 River Street.