The aging trolley cars parked behind Fairway on Van Brunt Street that were once part of a plan to revive trolley car service in Brooklyn starting with Red Hook were dragged away by a developer last night, according to Gothamist. Bob Diamond, who collected the trolleys and parked them in Red Hook (he also famously discovered the Atlantic Avenue tunnel), sent photos to Gothamist and said that neighborhood developer Greg O’Connell arranged to have them removed.

Gothamist reports conflicting rumors about whether the cars are destined for a scrap yard upstate or the Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston.

In the early ’80s, Diamond formed the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association and acquired a fleet of 16 early 20th-century trolleys, hoping to revive trolley service between downtown Brooklyn and Red Hook. Although the DOT pulled support for Diamond’s project in 2003, local groups have endorsed the plan in the last year, and he is hopeful that de Blasio will be more open than Bloomberg to the streetcar service.

Update: The O’Connell Organization donated three cars on its property to the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Conn., according to a press release we received via email tonight.

The Red Hook Trolleys Were Removed This Weekend [Gothamist]
Photo via Gothamist


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