Tandy Center Subway
| Tandy Center Subway route diagram |
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The Tandy Center Subway operated in Fort Worth, Texas (USA) from February 15, 1963[1] to August 30, 2002.[2] It ran a distance of 0.7 miles (1.1 km) and was, during the period of its operation, the only privately-owned subway in the United States.[3]
The subway was originally built by Leonard's Department Store in 1963, connecting the store to its large parking lots on the edge of downtown. Originally known as the Leonard's M&O Subway, it consisted of one underground station beneath the store and four stations in the parking lots. The Tandy Corporation purchased the department store, its parking lots, and the subway in 1967. The corporation built its headquarters, the Tandy Center, on the site in 1974. Although it demolished the original store, Tandy retained the subway.
The small subway primarily served patrons visiting the mall at the base of the Tandy Center, which also linked to the Fort Worth Central Library. However, the anchor tenant moved out in 1995 and the mall declined. The Tandy Center Subway ceased operation on August 30, 2002.
There is at least one car still in operation[4] that was converted from subway use to street car use that actively services the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority trolley route.
In April 1982 the first PCC streetcar to run the line in 1963, "Leonard's Number 1", was saved from the cutting torch by a Tandy computer programmer and stored on a farm south of Fort Worth where it remained for over 25 years. It was donated to the Leonard's Museum[5] in 2007. On February 2, 2008 it was moved to a restoration location near Benbrook, Texas. After restoration it will be returned to the Leonard's Museum for public display in Fort Worth, Texas.
[edit] See also
- Dillard's, which bought out Leonard's in 1974.
- North Texas Historic Transportation
[edit] References
- ^ "Handbook of Texas Online - Leonard Brothers". 18 January 2008. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/LL/dhlef.html. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
- ^ "Preserving Texas History: Tandy Subway". 31 August 2002. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~unclejoe/tx/subway.html. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
- ^ "Fort Worth, Texas". 2005. http://world.nycsubway.org/us/fortworth/. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
- ^ "Car 143: Winnie". 11 August 2008. http://www.mata.org/143specs.htm. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
- ^ Leonard's Department Store Museum
[edit] External links
- Tandy Subway History
- Pictures of Tandy Subway Cars in Fort Worth
- Parts of Subway preserved by North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc.
- Pictures of Tandy Center Subway cars and facilities during the final days of operation
- Video clip of Tandy Center Subway cars during the final week of operation
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