I have recently seen some photos and news items from the 1890s showing street railways carrying bicycles. If you have any information on this, would you please share?

From a Toronto history site. Hard to read sign seems to indicate bicycles for passengers ..?.. free.

With the invention of the safety bicycle, rubber tires and bloomers for women, bicycle riding became such the rage for Sunday outings in the 1890s. it would make sense streetcar companies would try and entice this market, which likely was impacting their revenues.

Not so much impacting their revenues, since the bicycle riding craze was for pleasure riding, not commuting, but rather an additional revenue source for the weekend. I recall an article about the Wisconsin Central (admittedly not a trolley line) offering free transit for bikes in the baggage car of their locals to encourage people to ride farther out into the country and then take the train back. Trolley lines could have done the same thing, if they could figure out where to stow the bikes.

Around the turn of the last century, in remote areas of central Pennsylvania, residents of the isolated lumber camps fitted bikes with a flanged outrigger wheel and would ride on the railroad tracks, up on the rail. It was a popular Sunday afternoon pastime, especially if no trains were running.

brian b

I saw this hanging on the wall of the Pasadena CA historical society. No additional info was available.

I wonder, what the motive power was for that trolley?

I'm thinking it's a horse car and the horse has been unhitched. or else a streetcar trailer waiting to be picked up. Wish I could make out the name of the line.

Did any trolley companies do this during WWII?

Also, I remember seeing an article on the web about 20 years ago about how the large bicycle clubs in Chicago would charter special trains to take them out into the country for group rides before and after WWII.

Does anyone know of this practice and where I might find it?

I want to share it with my bicycling friends. And I'm also using it to coax them away from the idea that an active rail line is a future bike trail. "Look! Bicycles can be carried by trains! This is even better!"

Charles

Not a trolley, but Cuyahoga Valley Scenic has a popular Bike Aboard service. Kayaks, too. The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga River both run somewhat parallel from Akron north to Rockside. We've biked from the Mustill Store in Akron to Peninsula, had lunch and return to Akron Northside station by train. It's a great service and I'd urge any tourist line with a parallel trail to consider something similar. Disclaimer - I'm not affiliated with CVSR, I just like the program.

Here in Seattle most buses have bicycle racks on the front and the light rail cars have them inside. An example from New York in 1898:

https://brooklynspoke.com/2015/06/03/cl ... trolley-2/

Lehigh Gorge Scenic Rwy. will also handle bikes uphill in the baggage car between Jim Thorpe and White Haven or other nearby places along the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania.
The bicycle craze was so popular in Manhattan, N.Y. in the 1890s that the steam powered Elevated trains had special Bicycle Cars.