Brian K. Darragh's Blog
May 10, 2015
how it started
I had the idea to write about the history of streetcars after I realized what an impact they had on the growth of the city. Areas of the city expanded and developed much faster because of the link to a service that could move large numbers of people and do it fairly quickly. Businesses flourished because of the larger number of people that could visit and support them.
I decided to put my thoughts down on paper after visiting 5 out of the 6 Heritage Streetcar Museums - Halton, Ontario, Vancouver, and Nelson, B.C., Edmonton, and Calgary in Alberta. I have many videos and books on the subject and have talked in length to other associations and operators of streetcars.
The city of Winnipeg's only public mode of transportation - from 1882 to 1918 was the streetcars. After that date although they continued to 1955, buses arrived in 1918. There were and continues to be transitions of buses to the present day. With many developments along the way, I decided to write down some of this pertinent history and record some of the stories along the way.
I worked as an operator for 38 years. Some of that early time was spent as a streetcar operator.
I decided to put my thoughts down on paper after visiting 5 out of the 6 Heritage Streetcar Museums - Halton, Ontario, Vancouver, and Nelson, B.C., Edmonton, and Calgary in Alberta. I have many videos and books on the subject and have talked in length to other associations and operators of streetcars.
The city of Winnipeg's only public mode of transportation - from 1882 to 1918 was the streetcars. After that date although they continued to 1955, buses arrived in 1918. There were and continues to be transitions of buses to the present day. With many developments along the way, I decided to write down some of this pertinent history and record some of the stories along the way.
I worked as an operator for 38 years. Some of that early time was spent as a streetcar operator.
