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Perley A. Thomas Car Works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. was a 20th century builder of wooden streetcars, based in High Point, North Carolina in the United States. It was named for its founder, Perley A. Thomas.
The company built many of the wooden electric overhead-trolley powered streetcars used throughout the United States primarily in the first half of the 20th century. However, known of their workmanship and durability, some of the cars built by Perley A. Thomas Car Works in the early 1920s are still operating today in New Orleans.
A famous Tennessee Williams play and later film of the same name was set in New Orleans, Louisiana where Perley A. Thomas streetcars were operated on the route labeled Desire around the period of 1947 in which the story was set, hence the name: A Streetcar Named Desire.
The Perley A. Thomas Car Works was reorganized as Thomas Built Buses, Inc., and became one of the three principal builders of large school buses in the United States by the end of the 20th century. It is still based in High Point, and is part of the Freightliner Group of DaimlerChrysler.
Perley A. Thomas, who died in 1958, was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame.
Perley Thomas cars continue to run on New Orleans' historic St. Charles Avenue Streetcar line.
One of these cars, #966, is preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum.
- History of Thomas Built Buses
- Company history at ironhorse129.com
- History of the Desire streetcar line
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