Shot by an electric railway enthusiast named Ben Young in the early 1950s, this silent 16mm home movie shows trolley cars of Brooklyn, New York including PCC or President’s Conference Committee cars which ran from 1936 to 1956. Filmmaker Ben Young later became the President of the Sunrise Chapter (Long Island) of the National Railroad Historical Foundation. After his passing a portion of his collection was sold, including 4 reels of 16mm film.This particular film shows the Brooklyn PCCs heading to Coney Island, and throughout the system where the Brooklyn trolleys operated, along with the subway and elevated lines.
Trolleys were once such a part of the Brooklyn scene that the local baseball club was named the ‘Trolley Dodgers’, later shortened to Dodgers when the club moved to Los Angeles. At 2:54, a bus is seen — foreshadowing the future demise of the trolleys. At 23:51 and 25:20, older double truck center-entrance trolleys made by J.G. Brill are briefly seen in service with buses. At 28:45, a NY subway car is seen on the elevated railway.
The Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corporation (B&QT) was one of the most active participants in the Electric Railway Presidents’ Conference Committee (ERPCC) that designed the PCC streetcar. BQ&T was the first to test a PCC prototype, and joined Pittsburgh and Chicago as the first to operate production PCCs in late 1936.
Brooklyn took delivery of 100 PCCs, all but the first one built by St. Louis Car Co.
Brooklyn’s PCCs primarily served only three routes: 67-Seventh Ave.; 68-Smith-Coney Island; and 69-McDonald-Vanderbilt. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia didn’t like streetcars, preferring buses instead. The 100 Brooklyn PCCs were phased out by 1956.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
