23-03-16 PHOTOS: McKinney Ave Extension

When I first visited Dallas in 2007, I was pleased to discover the McKinney Avenue heritage trolley line (apparently now rebranded as the M-Line) that ran from the art museum to the McKinney Ave arts and entertainment district. By that time the system had already been expanded once with a spur to the CityPlace DART station and a northward expansion to Blackburn Ave. The operation had an impressive fleet and level of service for a donation-funded non-profit and I rode it several times during my stay, despite the difficulty in reaching the Art Museum terminus (it was easier to take DART to CityPlace). Although I have been regularly visiting Dallas since 2017, I was never "downtown" enough to make time to revisit the McKinney Avenue trolley. However in 2023 I found myself back in the same hotel I had used in 2007 and to my complete surprise I realized that the long planned McKinney Ave Trolley extension into downtown had been completed and instead of being some 5 blocks away the streetcars now stopped across the street. With that level of convenience of course I was going to ride it again ,especially since I would be able to use it to access a greater variety of eateries. You can find the full gallery of photos here ( mirror ) and the previous coverage of my DART excursion to Buckner and the Dallas Terminal Railway here.

Due to the rainy weather I actually hit up the trolley before heading to Buckner with the hope that the weather would clear up some. The new station stop was at the corner of Federal and Olive and was where I caught the M-Line's smallest vehicle, Birney Safety Car #636.

The operator was new on the job and was receiving instruction from a comparatively veteran young lady. Watching the process it was interesting to see how much more complicated streetcar operation was with a huge amount of forethought to get stopped at the right place and not get into conflicts with the Texas sized vehicles it was sharing the road with.

I captured two long videos showing the training process, the first taken on Olive Street and the second on Cole. When the streetcar approached the more challenging McKinney Ave, the instructor took over.





In 2007 the CityPlace extension had been a stub terminal affair with the streetcars changing direction at the end of the line. This precluded the use of single ended cars like PCC's so at some point the M-Line installed an electric turntable. Here we see #636 taking a spin

After getting back to downtown I snagged this video of #636 turning off Federal St onto Olive St to begin a new run to the McKinney Ave food and arts district.

Later in the week the weather improved and I caught #636 again near the Klyde Warren Park, that was built on top of the Texas Route 366 urban highway.

I only rode it a few blocks until it McKinney Ave. The junction here was built new for the downtown loop expansion.

After picking up my food I managed to catch former Dallas Peter Witt car #754 making the turn onto what used to be the Saint Paul Street single track stub to the Art Museum.

#754 back at Federal and Olive.

The next day it was safety car #636 again at McKinney and Olive where I caught it meeting car #186. #186 was another former Dallas streetcar that was used as a hay barn in the 1960's and 70's before being purchased for preservation in 1979 and restored to working order in 1989. BTW, the number of mini-AC units needed to keep the vehicles comfortable in summer is concerning.

Car #7169 is one of the newer additions to the fleet and despite its odd appearance its actually a Brussels-built single-end Westinghouse All-Electric PCC. PCC family streetcars proved to be very popular in Europe with models being built into the 70's and 80's, just without the Art Deco styling. Below we see #7169 at both McKinney and St. Paul, and Federal and Olive.

Because of their healthier diets the European spec PCC's are not built as wide as their American counterparts.

Safety Car #636 again at McKinney Ave and Pearl St. The "Safety Car" moniker was part of Biney's branding highlighting a variety of innovations such as OPTO and automatic door operation. The motorman would actually sit in one of the reversible passenger seats to operate the train.

I'll wrap things up with this photo of car #754 again moving across the Route 366 overbuild with a variety of new high rise construction in the background.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Next time I'll be returning to Philadelphia to check out the historic Reading Viaduct.