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Car # 428 is sponsored by
SunTrust Bank. It's named "Shirley's Car" in memory of the
late civic booster, well-known banker and community activist Shirley Ryals who
 died in 2000.
Shirley's passengers are greeted
by this bright smile as they drop a nickel into the fare collection box.
The Hillsborough Area Regional
Transit Authority (HART) purchased eight historic replica streetcars from the
Gomaco Trolley Company of Ida Grove, Iowa. Designed to HART’s specifications,
the cars closely resemble the double-truck Birney cars operated in Tampa during
the 1920s, the city’s heyday of streetcar service. (From the TECOLine website at: http://www.tecolinestreetcar.org/about/about_vehicles.html
)
Passengers
are ready to ride on this replica of the early streetcars.
The
replicas are brand new, the only ones of their kind--factory built with overhead
air-conditioning
system.
Old
meets new.
Old-time
advertisements
face
modern climate control.
Streetcar
Features:
- All-steel unibody-welded construction
- Non-slip vinyl flooring
- Oak paneled interior
- Oak and cherry wood flip seats
- Electrically-operated doors with a sensing
edge
- Factory-installed air conditioning
- Insulation and special glass to support the
air conditioning system
- An operator’s compartment at each end of
the vehicle, including controls
- An electronic fare box at each end
capable of accepting cash, coins and magnetic encoded cards
- A public announcement system with eight
speakers per vehicle
- Areas for interior advertising cards
and holders for information
- An automated next-stop announcement
system using pre-recorded next-stop audio information in English and
Spanish for vision impaired patrons
- Digital information displays on each
end of the vehicle to provide next-stop information for hearing impaired
patrons
- Area at both ends of the vehicle for up
to two people using wheelchairs
Each vehicle is 46-feet long, 8-feet 6-inches
wide. The vehicles are steel-framed with double four-wheeled trucks and four
25-hp GE traction motors mounted on Peter Witt-style trucks from ATM of Milan,
Italy.
The streetcars operate on 600 volts of direct
current provided by an overhead power distribution system. Each vehicle weighs
46,000 pounds and has a maximum operating speed of 30 mph. The capacity of each
vehicle is 44 seated, with room for 40 standing passengers.
(From the TECOLine website at: http://www.tecolinestreetcar.org/about/about_vehicles.html
)
 
The bell cord cables are actually connected to a working bell.
 
The equipment on the left is
the "gas" and the shifter.
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