The small, unused train tracks off a neighborhood alley in North Knoxville were previously a bit of a mystery.
They're overgrown in places, and there's no train or trolley that runs on them − at least not these days. One Reddit user posted about them in r/Knoxville a couple of months ago after stumbling across the tracks in Oakwood-Lincoln Park.
The case was cracked with the help of Redditor u/jaredmanley. As it turns out, the tracks have nothing to do with local infrastructure, and everything to do with one man's unique, joyful hobby. In the 1950s, Joe Bell, whose greatest love was the streetcar, built one right in his own backyard.
The last running streetcar
By 1952, Bell − a 20-year-old Knoxville News Sentinel copy boy − had built 220 feet of track, trestles and switches,
the News Sentinel reported that year. His "Phineas and Ferb"-style contraption was a 1,000-pound car that featured an air-braking system. The track came from a concessionaire at Chilhowee Park, but the rest was collected from a variety of sources. Bell himself called it "just a rolling scrap pile." It took him a month to lay the track and construct the car, he said.
When it was built, Knoxville's actual streetcars had just been phased out. They stopped running in 1947. Bell jokingly boasted in 1970 that he was the owner of the only operating streetcar in the city − and the state.
Bell had made some improvements by that time. The trolley, which he'd dubbed No. 205, ran on two one-horsepower 110-volt AC motors and could reach a speed of up to 30 mph at that point. Bell's streetcar was four feet wide, 15 feet long and able to accommodate up to 15 passengers.
Who was Bell?
Bell was a true trolley enthusiast.
He was the eighth baby born at St. Mary's Hospital and graduated from Knoxville High School the year before it closed, he told Knox News in 1999. That year, News Sentinel editor Harry Moskos paid Bell a visit and took a few rides on his still-operating backyard streetcar.
Bell provided neighborhood kids − and adults − with thousands of trips aboard the trolley through the years. He had a counter on board between 1968 and 1972, during which time the number of passengers came to 16,411. Bell stopped regular service aboard the streetcar in 1972, but his love for the mode of transportation never ceased.
He owned an actual streetcar, too, No. 416, which at one time ran in Knoxville and which he kept in his backyard. It was eventually acquired by the Old Smoky Railroad Museum and later donated by the group to the East Tennessee Historical Society. Bell and other community members, including Moskos, supported a successful project to restore it. The car was placed in the Museum of East Tennessee History in fall 2003.
Bell died in 2011, but No. 416 remains at the East Tennessee History Center, and the mini tracks are still visible in Oakwood-Lincoln Park.
The News Sentinel might have summed up Bell's creative passion best all those years ago. "So if you're looking for an interesting and enjoyable way to spend your leisure hours, build a streetcar," the paper reported in 1970. "Joe Bell did."
Hayden Dunbar Evans is the storyteller reporter. Email: hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com. Instagram: @knoxstoryteller.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Small, unused tracks in Oakwood-Lincoln Park left by trolley enthusiast
