HawkinsRails.net is a web scrapbook featuring 50 years of railroad photography, shared by a father and son, with emphasis on lines and locomotives across the southeastern United States.

In this collection, we feature streetcars, motorcars, and trolleys from museums and municipal systems all over the United States, with a special emphasis on the historic New Orleans streetcar system: the oldest public streetcar operation in the world.

American cities in the 19th century were walking cities—most residents worked and shopped close to where they lived. But as electric streetcar (trolley) systems were built in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s, cities expanded. Many city dwellers moved to new trolley suburbs; streetcars made it easy to travel greater distances to work, shop, and socialize in town. City streets and the patterns of people’s daily lives changed.

Premier Streetcar Collection

Municipal Systems

Streetcar Museums

All Streetcar Collections

All photographs are by John or Ralph Hawkins unless otherwise noted.
See our reprints page to learn about obtaining a copy of a particular image.