TROLLEY TIME: More today from the definitive story on the old
trolley line as written in 1999 by Era writer Waldo Pettenati:

“It took great amounts of electricity to operate the streetcars.
The main generating station in Ceres generated 370 volts that could
be stepped up to 19,000 volts and sent along high tension wires to
four substations that contained rotary converters back down to 370
volts AC and converted to 550 to 600 volts DC.

“Trolley men had to work with extreme caution. An accident
happened when someone shot an insulator off a high tension wire as
it passed the Olean fairground at 16th Street. When the loose wire
came in contact with a telephone line, Leon T. Gooden was placing a
business call to the Vandalia area. As he picked up the phone, Mr.
Gooden was shocked with 19,000 volts of electricity.

“One of the worst accidents occurred when car number 59 wrecked
on Oct. 13, 1910. Accidentally, the two trolleys numbers 48 and 59
got their block signals mixed, and the two trolleys collided below
Five Mile Creek on McCoy’s Curve near the McCoy barn.

“Earle Foote, conductor of car 59, escaped injury while the
motorman of 48 Charles Cook lost an arm and a passenger, William
Schott was killed outright.

“The Trolley Co. owed sites like Riverhurst, the area’s first
attempt at a Disney World. Riverhurst was a pleasant place for
outings, picnics, canoeing and carousels. The trolley line did not
own Rock City Hill Park.

“By the 1920s, the trolley system peaked and began to decline.
Many factors led to the gradual fall of the trolley, two of which
stand out, the advent of the automobile and the strike of 1919.

“As the automobile became more popular, people stopped using the
trolley as a means of transportation. When the trolley fell back on
its large freight business, trucks and buses became more powerful
and carried freight economically, the need for trolleys
declined.

“Loren Nutt gave the order to pull the substation switch and
shut off the power to the trolley lines at 12:55 a.m. Sept. 1,
1927. The last car ran down North Union Street to the car barn on
schedule. It was car number 102 Bradford to Olean via Rock
City.

“The final ‘clang, clang’ of the trolley echoed in the car barn
on Aug. 31, 1927.”