Talk:Northern Virginia trolleys

message: hi, sdc.  Great job!  I'm 80% sure that Shockey was at the crossing of Hidden Road, which was a thru street between Courthouse and Chain Bridge Rds. when I was growing up on Hidden in the 1970's.  I didn't make this minor addition, as I'm not sure that my lack of paper documentation for it meets your criteria for evidence.  (Although Hidden is the most logical spot for Shockey, given the configuration of neighboring stations and street crossings.)  Also, I distinctly remember two sets of (cracked and overgrown) concrete sidewalk-steps, which appeared to date from c.1925, descending from higher sidewalk-grades on opposite sides of Hidden Rd. and down onto the railway grade at the probable Shockey station site.  I mention those only because they may, or may not, qualify as "remnants" or ancillary features, although perhaps not constructed by the trolley company.  I wonder if one or both survived the dead-ending of Hidden.
:Hi Bolar.  Welcome aboard.  Thanks for your kind comments.  I don't own this article--you don't need my permission, but it's good to discuss things with others.  Are you the one who has been making anonymous edits?  If so, good work to you.  If not, I would encourage that person to start an account so that we can communicate more easily with him/her.  I've also looked at the evidence, and Hidden Road is almost certainly the location of the Shockey station.  I put the 1915 Map in the article so that other people can help me figure out where things were.  All existing building structures are marked on that map.  Documentation for this subject is scarce, so I've begun digging into county archives and the like.  Over the last six months I've stockpiled copies of documents on my desk.  Since documentation is so scarce, personal experience is invaluable.  If you remember this, then I say put it in.  It fits with the facts.  I'm interested in any reminder that these lines existed, and especially in NoVa, most traces of them have been obliterated.  Any bit of evidence helps us document their route.  I looked at aerial photos of the area.  Looks like the new roads obliterated evidence of the former Hidden Road, but there is a white house in that neighborhood which seems to predate the modern suburban development.  Do you know anything about it?   Also, you can sign your comments by using four tildes (~~~~).
Most people in the Washington area have no idea that these lines even existed or at least that they were as extensive as they were.  I find it interesting that there's talk of extending Metro to Dulles, Fort Meade, and Fort Belvoir, when there used to be rail lines to these places.  
To everyone who has taken an interest in these pages:
I'm thinking of completely reorganizing these articles.  Wikipedia is giving warnings that the articles have become too long, and I find them unwieldy myself.  I'd like to break them down into manageable sizes.  For Virginia, I thought about breaking it into two articles:  The Washington-Virginia lines and the Old Dominion lines.  Currently, the Old Dominion info is duplicated in the Old Dominion article and the NoVa trolley article.  
For DC/Maryland, I'd like to break it into the downtown lines and the suburban lines.  I've more data on all these things to add, so it seems an inevitability.  I thought then there could be one summary article for the whole DC area which links to all the subarticles.  I'm also concerned about the naming of them.  With the advent of new streetcars in DC, how do I distinguish the older ones?  
"Metropolitan Washington's former streetcar/trolley system" seems inelegant.  We could just refer to them by their company names, but these were never constant.
Any objections to these changes?
I'd also like to modify the list of stations with their addresses to a table.  I think it will be a little more readable that way. SDC 19:03, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Shockey station 

message: One last, quick thought for this morning.  Shouldn't we list the first station on the Mount Vernon line as Ft. Humphreys and shouldn't the system map likewise show FH, to match its mention in the article text?  I realize, of course, that the Mount Vernon station-FH station segment was operational for only a very short period.  But the government-mandated FH extension was quite significant in the line's history, if I recall correctly, for the financial burden of the new track and cars.Bolar 10:15, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sure thing.  But I can't get any real information on that extension--just a couple of mentions that it existed.  That map isn't really done, but I have already added the extention on my copy, but it's just a guess as to the actual route.  Any idea where on the base the terminal was?  As I said, I can't get any data there.  And that map needs further tweaking, I'm trying to make it as geographically accurate as possible, while maintaining a "Metro look" about it.  And I've got parts of the downtown map done showing which streets specifically it ran on.  But that's taking time.  And I'm not sure how to represent a system that was continually changing.  Any suggestions?  SDC 10:30, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Camp Humphreys 

message: Do you know where the line terminated in Fairfax City?  Did it change over time?  I can't get definite answers to that question. SDC 10:31, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Fairfax terminal