Atlanta trolley stuff

I'm trying to find other places where you can see the old tracks embedded in the street. Here's what I've seen

Middle of intersection: Clifton & Mclendon (Route 4: Georgia Ave-Inman Park)

Here's what the official Georgia Power guides looked like in the 1940's and here's a scan of the map.

Here's a cool site with a bunch of Atlanta trolley photos

Here's the streetcar layout from 1924 and here's a proposal to keep it from bleeding cash.

A little history

There had been mule-drawn streetcars for years, but the first electrified streetcar line in Atlanta was developed by Joel Hurt to connect downtown to Atlanta's first suburb, Inman Park, which he was busy selling large lots for. The Atlanta & Edgewood Street Railroad Co was chartered in 1886 and in 1889, Thomson-Houston(local copy) installed the steam power house called the Butler Street Plant (south west corner of Decatur & Butler) with a generating capacity of 4,550 kva (it was later absorbed into Georgia Power and upgraded to 15,000 HP and 11,000 kilowatts) The yellow streetcars came from Lewis & Fowler (Brooklyn, NY) and the first trip took place 22 August 1889.

Other electricity being used in 1889 seems to be just street lamps which consisted of

167 arc lights
120 65 candle lamps (1.2 watts each)
306 32 candle lamps (0.6 watts each)

In 1891 Arkwright's Georgia Electric company built the Davis St plant (across Northside Dr from the new (2003) GWCC wing by the substation and tracks). It had a generating capacity of 2,100 kva. In 1904 it was (converted to a gas engine and?) increased to 6,000 HP and 2,000 kilowatt. 1911 increased 4,000 kilowatts to 11,000 total. 1928 15,800 HP & 10,500 K.W.

Water power hit town on 11 October 1904 with the Bull Sluice hydroelectric dam at Morgan Falls on the Chattahoochee between Roswell and Cobb County. It had a capacity of 10,500 kilowatts with a frequency of 25 cycles generating a voltage of 6,000. For transmission to Atlanta, it was stepped up to 22,000 volts and at the Davis & Thurmond substations (adjacent to the Davis Street Plant) it was stepped down to 6,000 volts and changed from 25 to 60 cycles. By 1928 the dam was generating 22,500 HP and 15,000 K.W.

All three of these facilities were part of the new Georgia Power Company and until 1910 the streetcars used 80% of total capacity and accounted for 70% of their net earnings.

By 1930, here were all the substations which "transform the Company's hydro-electric output from the high voltage required for long-distance transmission to the lower voltage for distribution on low tension lines within the city." (from 1928 Georgia Power yearbook)

83 Alabama SW
4 Atlanta Ave
562 Boulevard SE
1301 Boulevard NE
127 Butler SE
319 E College Ave
211 Decatur SE
269 Decatur SE
144 Edgewood Ave NE
1162 Euclid Ave NE
821 Gordon SW
210 Moreland NE
976 Peachtree NE
3005 Peachtree Rd
3147 Piedmont Ave NE
118A E Ponce de Leon
592 Stewart SW

The "modern" substation building on Stewart still stands but most were razed and replaced with modern outdoor equipment.