Old Missoula

3 Photo Captions on Page 12 Section C

Passengers Boarding Daly Addition Car

These residents of the South Side are boarding the Daly Addition streetcar at the intersection of Broadway and Higgins. This line served the general area of the South Side west of Higgins. The big “D” on the front of the car was what residents of that area looked for as the electric-powered vehicle came clanging down the street. (Courtesy of John A. Forssen)

All Aboard for West Side

The “W” on this streetcar stands for West Side. These patrons of the trolley are boarding the car near the intersection of Higgins avenue and Broadway.

Derailments Pose Some Trying Problems

Derailments such as this one on the Bonner line of the street railway system of Missoula posed some big problems for the maintenance crews. The system had no heavy crane to retrial the cars, so the job was done with jacks and timbers to raise the car and slide it back to the rails.

In the nearly 22 years of the system’s operation there is record of only one fatal accident. This occurred when the Bonner and East Side cars collided at the underpass of the Northern Pacific Railway on Van Buren street.

Once, on a cold winter day, the air brake system of the Bonner car froze and the car smashed into a work car at East Missoula. One of the toughest jobs the streetcar crew faced was replacing a broken axle on the Bonner car in East Missoula. The car, heavier than those used in the city, was jacked up and the new wheel and axle unit manhandled under it. (Photo courtesy of Gilbert Walrath)