People

While Thomas Lowry, the man who formed Twin City Rapid Transit, is the most famous name associated with Minnesota streetcars, the histories of streetcar employees illuminate more sides of the story.

To learn more, check out MNopedia’s article on the Streetcar Strike of 1917 and a MPR interview with Bob Stevenson who operated streetcars on the Como-Harriet line in the early 1950s.

Initially, streetcars were two-person operations, where the motorman drove in the front and a conductor collected fares in the rear. In 1932, despite citizen objection concerning safety and unemployment, streetcars were converted to one-person operations.

Trainmen outside East Side Station, at 1st Avenue NE and University Avenue.

At the height of the Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) company, tracks stretched all the way to Mahtomedi, where the company owned and operated the Wildwood Amusement Park. Pictured here are TCRT employees and their families on the Wildwood Park station steps at an annual picnic.

Twin City Rapid Transit East Side Station Trainmen's Band