Customer Reviews

Streetcar Days in Honolulu

5 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For anyone interested in the early days of Honolulu, or in the role that streetcars played in shaping urban life, this book is a wonderful experience. Through an amazing amount of detailed research, it recreates how the streetcar provided the focus for the everyday movement of residents around the city, and in fact was a determinant in how the city constantly expanded its boundaries. Accompany the fascinating story is a wealth of original photographs, many of them colorized in elegant and tasteful tones. It's a beautifully produced book of the highest quality. It will draw anyone who sees it to open it, and will delight anyone who ventures into its realm.

Although I assisted in a small way in the research of this book, I can honestly say it is well worth obtaining. The book is about the streetcars that used to ply the streets of Honolulu from the turn of the century up to 1941. The company was HRT&L and later just HRT (Honolulu Rapid Transit). The streetcars were actually responsible for the expansion of the neighborhoods in Honolulu. The photos used are fabulous with many of them color tinted just for this book. There are several interviews of former HRT employees, and residents that remember riding the streetcars. The author and publisher did months of research, and hundreds of interviews to get the facts straight! This is a great book for anyone that loves to take a step back in time to a slower pace of life. It is especially enjoyable because it takes place in Hawaii which is my favorite place on the planet. There is also a chapter in the book on HRT trolley buses which replaced the streetcars. I highly recommend this book.

According to Simpson:

"While the book is full of technical and historic details about streetcars, Simpson said that is not its primary focus.

"The title is 'Streetcar Days' and the 'Days' is important because it's really about people and the community, rather than the minutiae about rivets and car numbers. We were really more interested in the stories," he said. --- From an interview reported in a local paper (http://starbulletin.com/2000/12/22/features/story1.html)

I find the book to be an informative, enjoyable, and sometimes humorous read, with many memorable images.

Tana-Lee

The most important parts of a trolley company history is the dates of opening of lines; the arrangement of services and a roster of the equipment operated. In this volume, one has to search hard for line opening dates, service realignments are merely mentioned and not detailed; and despite pull out boxes on various groups of cars, the information is quite lacking; just try to trace information of the 1-25 series from purchase to retirement. Where the retired trailers used in their rebuilding? What of the second 12 which was a homebuilt car? Were other vehicles rebuilt like 57? The hand tinted postcards are are unique and well thought out way of illustrating this volume, but a roster is sorely missing.