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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 10 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 2 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1915 | 1 |
29 stories matching trolley
- Trolley Conductor Survives High-Voltage Shock
A conductor working the Spanaway line narrowly escaped death after receiving a severe electric shock during a routine repair.
- The Streetcar Blues
A local editor skewers a poet's romanticized version of riding Tacoma's crowded, unreliable trolley cars.
- The Emergency Brake of 1892
A clever new mechanism for Seattle's Woodland Park streetcar line promised to stop a runaway trolley car within its own length.
- Trolley Car Disaster Narrowly Averted
A construction car derails near Lake Washington, trapping a man in the mud.
- A Seattle Streetcar Killing Sparks Calls for Lynching
A labor dispute turns violent in the streets of Seattle, nearly triggering a riot outside a trolley line's offices.
- The Trolley Overtakes the Steam Train
Faced with competition from local electric lines, the Northern Pacific Railway begins electrifying its Everett-to-Snohomish branch.
- Streetcar Plunges into Seattle Waterfront
An electric car derails on the North Seattle waterfront, sliding into the tide flats and impaling a passenger on pier pilings.
- Commuter Struck by Streetcar in South Tacoma
A Spanaway man was sent flying into a snowdrift after attempting to flag down an outbound trolley.
- Death on the Division Street Bridge
A morning commute turned into a catastrophe when a steel span over the Spokane River collapsed, sending two trolley cars into the freezing water.
- The Trolley Plunge
A Ballard couple sues a railway company for a winter disaster where a streetcar slid off an icy trestle and into the bay.
- Trolley Collision at Fourth and Jackson
A freight car and a passenger cable car collide in downtown Seattle, but fortunately leave no passengers injured.
- The Trolley That Had to Buy a Gulch
A streetcar line blocked by a ravine gets its way to Harrison Avenue — for the price of a $1,630 strip of C. M. Moore's block 48.
- The Trolleys Are Coming to Yakima Avenue
A new 50-year franchise grants developers the power to lay streetcar tracks across the city's main thoroughfares.
- A Tragic End for Seattle’s Youngest Newsboy
The short life of Freddy Sherman, a child who helped support his family by selling papers, cut short by a trolley accident.
- The Electric Trolley Race to Lake Washington
As a new electric streetcar line connects Seattle to the lakefront, land speculators are scrambling to capitalize on the city's suburban expansion.
- The Trolley Race: Seattle's 1891 Suburban Boom
A new electric rail line ignites a speculative frenzy for lakeside land as Seattleites dream of suburban expansion.
- Streetcar Strikes Schoolgirl on Sixth Avenue
A pedestrian is injured after being hit by a speeding trolley, sparking local frustration over transit safety.
- Trolley Derailment Injures Three in South Tacoma
A motorman’s failure to brake on a sharp curve throws passengers from a streetcar platform near 38th and M streets.
- The Lineman and the Trolley Line
A worker's damage suit against a telephone company is thrown out after the court decides infrastructure shouldn't have to withstand streetcar accidents.
- The Conductor, the Widow, and the Mock Marriage
A streetcar conductor's scheme to juggle two fiancées collapses in a dramatic confrontation on a Seattle trolley.
- Seattle's Early Electric Power Wars
As rival power companies rush to wire the city, a price war breaks out, forcing residents to choose between competing arc-light contracts.
- The Real Estate Fever of 1891
A classic advertisement for 'Sonora,' a speculative development that promised electric trolleys and immense wealth to anyone brave enough to buy a stake in the growing Seattle outskirts.
- The Teenaged Inventors of North Seattle
Two brothers, aged 13 and 15, harness the power of electricity to drive boats, light homes, and saw wood along the Seattle waterfront.
- One Man a Car and Twenty-Five Miles an Hour: Labor Demands the Streetcars Keep Their Bargain
The Western Central Labor Union charges Seattle's trolley companies with running unsafe, understaffed cars — and the council gives them twenty days to comply or forfeit their franchises.
- Rapid Transit to Eternity: Olympia's Kerosene Trolley, Minus the Matches
George Marvin Savage's homemade coal-oil motor car is about to carry paying passengers down to the Fourth Street track — if it doesn't explode first. Riders get accident insurance, and their obituary verses have already been written.