Retracing the Path of a Street Railway

The history of technology can stimulate student interest and provide an important historical and cultural prospective for engineering courses.This paper presents the results of historical research about a local street railway, and discusses the use of history of technology topics for freshman and senior courses.Electric street railways played an important part in the development of cities and towns in the early twentieth century.Many of them operated for only a few decades, and often became obsolete as automobiles and roadways improved.New Bedford and Onset Street Railway operated electric trolleys between the named cities in Massachusetts from the early 1900s into the late 1920s.As was the custom, most of the track was laid in the public right of way so the public land records contain very little evidence of its existence.Nearly one hundred years later, its original path has been obliterated by infrastructure changes.The objective of this research was to accurately identify the location of the trolleys' tracks and structures.Examples of maps showing the tracks and facilities are presented along with photos showing trolley cars, stations, car barns, and power plants.Where possible, these are related to current infrastructure.