This “subway” and the Tandy Center were a huge part of my early growing-up years. I remember it from well before Tandy in the Leonard’s Dept Store days. We often took the subway to go ice skating at the TC and eat at the little grill overlooking the ice. It was our gateway to downtown. Such sweet memories.
That would explain it all. I didn’t especially have time to explore retail, but there seemed to be a bit of it around and as you saw the iceskating rink was popular but without a steady coming and going of shoppers, there would be no purpose for the subway. I remember walking through part of the city of Fort Worth, probably from the bus station, and although there were plenty of office buildings there seemed to be a complete lack of retail which significantly contrasts with Australian capital city centres with businesses small and large thriving, although Covid has almost certainly closed some of them down for now.
I was certainly surprised when I read of its closure but apparently nearly all the shops and other attractions left the building so there was nobody to use it. A real pity.
Remember riding the subway to and from work and the driver would walk from end to end when it reached the end of the line. Tried the ice skating rink once during my roller skating years and hung on to the railing around the side to keep from falling. Somebody told me ice skating was hard on your ankles and they were right. But great memories.
Two of the old outdoor stations still exist as small outdoor stages for the Panther Island Pavilion, which are easily viewable from the remaining portion of the Tandy Center parking lot west of Henderson Street. Eventually these will get removed as the Panther Island development project gets underway. There's also closed-off remnants of the subway tunnel somewhere under the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus.
@@sbclaridge Thanks for that update. It’s a pity it had to close, but I suppose that if all the attractions in the Tandy building disappeared one by one, nobody needed to go there any more.
The poles are air driven, there's a 2 notched lever you flip pulls the pole down ..The rope is used just in case the air failed while driving from the other end.
My friend Carol tended to favor car 2, 3& 5 on weekends. I had an addiction to car #6(RED stripe and interior). Christmas would come around and she retained the old style PCC lights so the folks at the subway would put green and red light bulbs for festive purposes. #7(Dark Green) was a fast accelerator of speed and that can be clearly seen here.
+Shawn Boswell Hi. It's good to hear from a former driver. Do you think anything could have saved the line, or had 'everyone' simply abandoned the shopping centre? I drove the trams in Melbourne. My depot had about 6 routes. But after doing any one for a week I was glad to get onto a different one for the next week. I don't know how you guys avoided going mad, up and down the same line, interesting as it was.
I drove and then worked on the cars, there was no saving the line it was all about the money...And yes when I drove in my early yrs. it got boring, I would give anything to have it back/.
@@tressteleg1 Of course, you are right ! But, the City of Fort Worth could have added new functions to this system in a timely manner and thus made it more useful (e.g. Park & Ride; Downtown Circulator; City Sub- way, alike Boston; etc.). In order to enable such perspectives, the Streetcar should have been expanded accordingly. But that was prevented by the former time sprit of a so-called “Car-friendly City” from the 1960s until the 1990s. An aberration in many cities around the world. It will be interesting to see, whether the “Panther Island Project” will result in new approaches for a Streetcar system in Fort Worth, in future. Maybe also in form of an intern cities connecting Lightrail, between it's neigh- bour city Dallas. Innovative and cheap as a “TRAM-TRAIN”, via one of the existing railroad corridors ... 👋😉 🇩🇪
@@MsGalfreak Unfortunately when the line closed, modern ‘light rail’ was not as much in favour as it has been in more recent years. Politicians tend to weight up how much a project might cost and balance that against the number of votes likely to be won. And to be worth the cost, expensive projects need to get a lot of happy users. Not being familiar with the city or its projects, I can comment no further except to say that it would be nice if the tunnel could be used again.
Great video. Very upsetting it’s gone but I guess if the Tandy center is dead it wouldn’t make sense to keep running a service to something that doesn’t exist anymore
@@tressteleg1 get rid of the surface lots and build more multi use high rises and use the panther island parking lot for workers and revamp the subway system is my take.
@@tressteleg1 i wold if i still lived in Fort Worth. I lived there 20 out of my 23 years. I still go back at-least twice a year. Fort Worth is getting so much better but they haven’t aren’t addressing downtowns wasteful lots that are from the 60’s and 70’s.
Admittedly I only went there once but got the impression that the city centre is no more than office block upon office block with no reason for ordinary people to ever go there for shopping. I just now took a quick Google Earth look at a couple of city blocks,but apart from maybe some places to for city workers to eat, there’s nothing there. Maybe I looked in the wrong areas. Presumably the subway was for shoppers to get between their cars and somewhere worthwhile to shop, but that’s just gone.
This “subway” and the Tandy Center were a huge part of my early growing-up years. I remember it from well before Tandy in the Leonard’s Dept Store days. We often took the subway to go ice skating at the TC and eat at the little grill overlooking the ice. It was our gateway to downtown. Such sweet memories.
It is a pity that it closed. I heard that the ‘Tandy’ building has little retail activity these days. Is that so??
@@tressteleg1
As far as I know, the retail spaces at the Tandy Center were demolished years ago.
That would explain it all. I didn’t especially have time to explore retail, but there seemed to be a bit of it around and as you saw the iceskating rink was popular but without a steady coming and going of shoppers, there would be no purpose for the subway.
I remember walking through part of the city of Fort Worth, probably from the bus station, and although there were plenty of office buildings there seemed to be a complete lack of retail which significantly contrasts with Australian capital city centres with businesses small and large thriving, although Covid has almost certainly closed some of them down for now.
Have memories of the zambonie and school groups around the center when I worked.
I must of need 5-7 years old coming here. I’ve always remembered it and specifically remembering the beautiful bulbs as you entered the center.
It’s a pity that city trends changed and the Center was no longer viable, which killed the subway line. I guess this video brought back some memories.
Was told that they changed those bulbs by hand and was surprised.
that was such a beautiful memory from my childhood. thank you for sharing
👍👍
Really miss the Tandy Subway I worked for Tandy transportation as a truck driver driver from 1987 to 1999 wish all of the driver a blessed live
I was certainly surprised when I read of its closure but apparently nearly all the shops and other attractions left the building so there was nobody to use it. A real pity.
Remember riding the subway to and from work and the driver would walk from end to end when it reached the end of the line. Tried the ice skating rink once during my roller skating years and hung on to the railing around the side to keep from falling. Somebody told me ice skating was hard on your ankles and they were right. But great memories.
Great memories thanks! And I am riding Gold Coast Queensland Australia tram 12 as I write this reply. 😊. Too bad you line is no more ☹️
Back in the 80s they breifly trained some Radio Shack repair techs from Australia.@@tressteleg1
Two of the old outdoor stations still exist as small outdoor stages for the Panther Island Pavilion, which are easily viewable from the remaining portion of the Tandy Center parking lot west of Henderson Street. Eventually these will get removed as the Panther Island development project gets underway.
There's also closed-off remnants of the subway tunnel somewhere under the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus.
@@sbclaridge Thanks for that update. It’s a pity it had to close, but I suppose that if all the attractions in the Tandy building disappeared one by one, nobody needed to go there any more.
The poles are air driven, there's a 2 notched lever you flip pulls the pole down ..The rope is used just in case the air failed while driving from the other end.
+Shawn Boswell
Thanks Shawn. Some of us had wondered about pole raising.
Any info you need I can give...
+Shawn Boswell
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
It looks like cars 2,3,5&7 were out. Hope you had a good time in our city.
+Mikelandscaper
Thanks for that. I tried to work it out without success.
My friend Carol tended to favor car 2, 3& 5 on weekends. I had an addiction to car #6(RED stripe and interior). Christmas would come around and she retained the old style PCC lights so the folks at the subway would put green and red light bulbs for festive purposes. #7(Dark Green) was a fast accelerator of speed and that can be clearly seen here.
Give me car 1 and car 7 , smooth and fast and held the track very well. Me and John drove car 1 the most.
+Shawn Boswell
Hi. It's good to hear from a former driver. Do you think anything could have saved the line, or had 'everyone' simply abandoned the shopping centre?
I drove the trams in Melbourne. My depot had about 6 routes. But after doing any one for a week I was glad to get onto a different one for the next week. I don't know how you guys avoided going mad, up and down the same line, interesting as it was.
I drove and then worked on the cars, there was no saving the line it was all about the money...And yes when I drove in my early yrs. it got boring, I would give anything to have it back/.
Why do always
the best things that exist,
have gone ???
🤔 🇩🇪
I agree with your sorrow but when all the shoppers went away, sadly there was no need for it any more.
@@tressteleg1
Of course, you are right !
But, the City of Fort Worth could have added new functions to this system in a timely manner and thus made it more useful (e.g. Park & Ride; Downtown Circulator; City Sub- way, alike Boston; etc.).
In order to enable such perspectives, the Streetcar should have been expanded accordingly. But that was prevented by the former time sprit of a so-called “Car-friendly City” from the 1960s until the 1990s. An aberration in many cities around the world.
It will be interesting to see, whether the “Panther Island Project” will result in new approaches for a Streetcar system in Fort Worth, in future. Maybe also in form of an intern cities connecting Lightrail, between it's neigh- bour city Dallas.
Innovative and cheap as a “TRAM-TRAIN”, via one of the existing railroad corridors ...
👋😉 🇩🇪
@@MsGalfreak Unfortunately when the line closed, modern ‘light rail’ was not as much in favour as it has been in more recent years. Politicians tend to weight up how much a project might cost and balance that against the number of votes likely to be won. And to be worth the cost, expensive projects need to get a lot of happy users. Not being familiar with the city or its projects, I can comment no further except to say that it would be nice if the tunnel could be used again.
Great video. Very upsetting it’s gone but I guess if the Tandy center is dead it wouldn’t make sense to keep running a service to something that doesn’t exist anymore
Sadly I believe your assessment is exactly the problem.
@@tressteleg1 get rid of the surface lots and build more multi use high rises and use the panther island parking lot for workers and revamp the subway system is my take.
@@bentonstaffel2471 Maybe you should chat to the site owners.
@@tressteleg1 i wold if i still lived in Fort Worth. I lived there 20 out of my 23 years. I still go back at-least twice a year. Fort Worth is getting so much better but they haven’t aren’t addressing downtowns wasteful lots that are from the 60’s and 70’s.
Admittedly I only went there once but got the impression that the city centre is no more than office block upon office block with no reason for ordinary people to ever go there for shopping. I just now took a quick Google Earth look at a couple of city blocks,but apart from maybe some places to for city workers to eat, there’s nothing there. Maybe I looked in the wrong areas. Presumably the subway was for shoppers to get between their cars and somewhere worthwhile to shop, but that’s just gone.
can i speak with you about your video? i am doing some research for a book?
Certainly. Please email tressteleg(at)icloud.com
Use the normal symbol instead of (at)
I worked there if you need more info.
Shawn, if you wish to contact him directly, contact me the same way as I suggested to Bruce. He may not see your comment.
not bad.
+harrypotter6116
Thanks. Such a pity it died. Unique.