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Trolleys used to have more horses but less horsepower

Early trolleys in old Boston

The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.

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Street car barns at Fields Corner. It has to be 1890's based upon the horse cars.

This is where the shopping center is now, between the station and Park Street.

Anthony knows the height, weight, sleeping habits and proclivities of every person in Dorchester that lived there between 1630 and 1920. I would say he is right here too.

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... just before the feature race at Suffolk Downs

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A couple of those horses sure have a lot of legs. That's necessary when you're pulling a trolley.

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Horses came with a lot of options in those days. There was the Convertible Horse, the Four-Door Horse, the ALD (All Leg Drive) Offroad Horse, and the Hybrid Horse, among others.

The Hybrid Horse, also known as the Mule, didn't last, because it couldn't reproduce. A poor design decision, that.

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IMAGE(https://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/trolley.jpg)

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- The year is about 1878. The open cars and everyone's clothes mean it's summer.

- This streetcar line would ultimately see its ridership drop drastically after rapid transit arrived in the neighborhood in the late 1920s. The modern MBTA bus route this line is descended from does not operate after 7:00PM or at all on Sundays.

- Streetcar service here ended on February 12, 1949. A special move the next day brought all the equipment (under their own power) across town to Everett Shops and other carhouses.

- This site remained a transit property (MTA bus garage) until 1962, when it was replaced by a strip mall. Approximately where those horses were standing in 1878, you'll likely find some teenagers standing in front of a McDonald's in 2018.

- Also across the street from the strip mall in 2018 is a streetcar reservation now used as a busway. Some pieces of rail even still poke out!

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Worked there when it was Bradlees. I had reason to remove a suspended ceiling panel once and found the original roof from the T garage

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Why did that random half-block stretch get a private trolley reservation, which isn't really a shortcut compared to the road?

And why did the T keep it as a private busway, but not any of the other former trolley reservations?

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Route 210 is the route you're mentioning. It is a former Eastern Mass Street Railway trolley route that operated to Quincy Square when the trolleys operated, and is one of three Quincy garage routes (the others being 201 and 202, which were formerly part of the 20 Neponset - Adams trackless trolley route) operating from Fields Corner.

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Thanks for playing, folks! This is indeed the Fields Corner Car Barn on Dorchester Avenue. The date is circa 1895.

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If you're not careful, you might just get kicked in the shins, or worse...

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