t was a sunny day in springtime when I got acquainted with Mike Fleming while attending a softball game our boys were playing. After a few pleasantries he asked what I did, and I told him what my job was and added my real interest is History. He responded, if you like History you should see my brother Larry’s Streetcar Museum. Oh, and bring Gloves. As indicated in this picture (That’s me in the plaid shirt) I brought gloves and was volunteered to help lay the first 50 feet of track that streetcar 116 ran on. Later on, with the help of my teenage son I was able to construct a website on that newfangled concept called the Internet and became the Webmaster of the Phoenix Street Railway Museum (nee Phoenix Trolley Museum) Eventually that task was taken over by someone with real Internet skills and I began to learn more about the history of the trolley system in Phoenix. I learned that Larry Fleming used to ride in the trolley as a youngster with his grandfather and that a retiring Motorman gave him his Motorman’s hat. Later, he wrote a Senior term paper about the streetcar system before graduating from High School. He went on to college and law school and military duty. Still later he wrote a book about the Streetcar System called Ride a Mile and Smile the While (Streetcar Motto) Then he became involved with the Arizona Historical Society and began to organize the Museum.

 

As a Docent I read and learned from Larry about the young man, M.H. Sherman, that came to Arizona Territory and eventually began developing an early Horse drawn trolley system (1887) that aided in his real estate sales activities.

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As the years went by I was finally accorded the opportunity to again put on my gloves and learn how to operate Streetcar 116 and earned the nickname of “Motorman Max”