Tampa — Open Trolley

Rail Transit Online, February 2005

The TECO Line streetcar is now providing service with a 15-bench open trolley borrowed from Gomaco but soon to be purchased.  Car No. 1776 was built in the mid-1980s, about the time when Gomaco manufactured two similar cars for the line in the Lowell (Massachusetts) National Historic Park.  Except for a brief turn in Mason City, Iowa, the trolley remained in storage at the company’s plant in Ida Grove, Iowa.  Last summer, it was loaned to Charlotte to help handle crowds on the heritage streetcar operation linking the Historic South End to Uptown (Center City).  Gomaco recently completed delivery of three Birney replica cars to Charlotte.  With No. 1776 available, officials in Tampa decided to see if it would be popular in Florida.  Dubbed the Breezer, it began demonstration rides on Jan. 28.  HARTline, the local transit agency, now says it plans to buy the car for $225,000, a bargain considering that each of the TECO Line’s eight Birney replicas, also from Gomaco, cost $600,000 (a ninth Birney is under construction).  Tampa once had a fleet of 50 open cars, the last of which ran more than 65 years ago.  The Breezer has seating for 90 and is powered by a set of trucks with 25 hp motors salvaged from Milan, Italy’s venerable Peter Witt cars.