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Cincinnati
Railroad Club Field Trip to Cincinnati Streetcar Facility Streetcar Tour on March 19, 2016 At around 9:30am on March 19th 35 members of
the Cincinnati Railroad Club boarded a bus in the parking lot
of the Cincinnati Union Terminal (Cincinnati Museum Center) to
tour the Cincinnati Streetcar Facility. We arrived shortly at
the facility seeing some of the route on the way. We were joined
by club member Jeff Hirsh who drove there to meet us. We were
first given a safety orientation by the two tour guides Paul Grether
a club member and Director of Rail Services at Cincinnati Metro
and Phil Lind, Transportation/Safety & Security Manager so
that we knew what to do and what not to do. We then were divided
into two groups and began the tour of the facilities. We saw a
machine that was used to true the wheels of the streetcars, how
the streetcars had sanders just like trains do to keep the wheels
from spinning when the rail gets wet and a 9-ton crane used to
do any heavy lifting. We got to see the cars from street level
and from the mezzanine level looking down on the tops of the cars.
We then went outside and got to go inside one of the cars and
see where the driver sits and all different things that the driver
can control such as opening and closing the doors, etc. I asked
if there would be bike racks on the front of the streetcar but
Phil said no as they could be brought into the car through the
double doors. The number of passengers for each car is 38 sitting
and 118 standing. There was a question and answer period where
Paul and Phil gave the group answers to their questions.We
went across the street to visit the Rookwood Pottery facility
which has a gift shop inside of it along with examples of the
pieces that were made there. There are free tours of the facility
at 10:30am on Wednesdays. Everyone enjoyed the tour.
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