Editing Tandy Center Subway

{{Short description|Former subway system in Fort Worth, Texas}}
{{Infobox rail line
|name=Tandy Center Subway
|image=File:Tandy Center Subway 3.jpg
|caption=A Tandy Center Subway car on the last day of service in 2002
|type=[[Tram]]
|linelength_mi=0.7
|open=February 15, 1963<ref name=open />
|close=August 30, 2002<ref name=close />
|map={{Tandy Center Subway}}
}}

The '''Tandy Center Subway''' was a small rapid transit system that operated in [[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]], [[Texas]], from February 15, 1963<ref name=open>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dhlef|title=Handbook of Texas Online - Leonard Brothers|access-date=30 December 2008|date=18 January 2008}}</ref> to August 30, 2002.<ref name=close>{{cite web|url=http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~unclejoe/tx/subway.html|title=Preserving Texas History: Tandy Subway|access-date=30 December 2008|date=31 August 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814172756/http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~unclejoe/tx/subway.html|archive-date=14 August 2009}}</ref> It ran a distance of {{convert|0.7|mi|km|1}} and was, during the period of its operation, the only privately owned [[rapid transit|subway]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://world.nycsubway.org/us/fortworth/|title=Fort Worth, Texas|access-date=30 December 2008|year=2005}}</ref>

==History==
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. Between 1962 and 1966, Leonard's acquired a total of 15 [[PCC streetcar]]s from [[Streetcars in Washington, D.C.|DC Transit]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] These had been manufactured by the [[St. Louis Car Company]] in the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name="rpc">{{cite book | title=Railway Passenger Car Annual, Volume I, 1973-1974 | publisher=RPC Publications | author=Randall, W. David | year=1974 | location=Park Forest, IL | page=134}}</ref>

The [[Tandy Corporation]] purchased the department store, its parking lots, and the subway in 1967. [[Dillard's]] operated the store and subway, under the name '''Dillard's Metro Liner''', for a short amount of time there after. The corporation built its headquarters, the [[Tandy Center]], on the site in 1974. Although it demolished the original store, Tandy retained the subway.
[[File:Tandy Center Subway.jpg|thumb|left|Streetcars at the terminal in 2002]]
The small subway primarily served patrons visiting the mall at the base of the Tandy Center, which also linked to the downtown location of [[Fort Worth Public Library]]. However, the anchor tenant moved out in 1995 and the mall declined. The Tandy Center Subway ceased operation on August 30, 2002.

After the closure, one of the streetcars used on the subway was acquired by Dallas's [[M-Line Trolley|McKinney Avenue Transit Authority]], which modified it to again make it suitable for in-street use, and it operated in service on the McKinney Avenue [[heritage streetcar]] line in Dallas until the mid-to late 2000s. Nicknamed "Winnie" for its shape, it had repeated mechanical failures during its short service life. {{As of|2012}}, it remains in storage in Dallas, out of use.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mata.org/143specs.htm|title=Car 143: Winnie|date=April 5, 2012|publisher=McKinney Avenue Transit Authority|access-date=April 19, 2015}}</ref>

"Leonard's number one" was the first [[PCC streetcar]] to run the line in 1963, the subway car was originally manufactured by the [[St. Louis Car Co.]] between 1937 and 1944 in Washington, D.C., with custom made air conditioning and heating. The number one car is the only one of five original subway cars to survive. In April 1982 the car 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.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=
https://tylerpaper.com/news/texas/historic-private-subway-car-from-fort-worth-to-be-refurbished-and-displayed/article_9c36f898-8a0c-58a4-bf3f-12a6c743ff16.html
|title=Historic private subway car from Fort Worth to be refurbished and displayed
|orig-date= August 13, 2013 |date= October 24, 2017
|publisher= Tyler Morning Telegraph
|access-date= May 10, 2021
}}</ref> On February 2, 2008, it was moved to a restoration location near [[Benbrook, Texas]].  {{As of|2013}}, Leonard's number one is on public display in the lobby of Texas Capital Bank, Fort Worth (One City Place).<ref>{{cite AV media
|url=
https://youtube.com/watch/O2XyD7FMJKM
|title=
Leonard's M&O Subway Car No. 1
|date= Nov 4, 2013
|publisher= Fort Worth Star Telegraph
|access-date= May 10, 2021
}}</ref>

A second car, nicknamed "Ms. Marty" was stored in a warehouse after the closure of the subway, and was relocated when said warehouse was demolished for the Panther Island Project. Miss Marty has been relocated to a Trinity Metro maintenance facility for storage.

Parts of the tunnels that ran the cars still exist but currently closed off to the public. Due to the subway station being located directly under the street, it remains to this day, with the gaps in-between the subway platforms filled in, and the tunnel gated off. The end of the tunnel opening into the parking lots was buried during construction of the [[Tarrant County College|Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus]]. In 2015, [[Gordon Dickson (journalist)|Gordon Dickson]] with Lauren Leonard, the great-granddaughter of Obie Leonard and cousin Marty Leonard, daughter of founder Marvin Leonard, visited the tunnel with asset manager for Spire Realty Group Ryan Johnson. During that visit, the Marty Leonard signed “Remember the M&O,” with date and name on the wall closing off the tunnel.<ref>{{cite web |date=April 1, 2015 |title=Cowtown underground: M&O Subway gone, but spooky tunnel remains |url=https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article17124035.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240715062040/https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article17124035.html |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |access-date=May 10, 2021 |publisher=Fort Worth Star Telegraph}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Dillard's]], which bought out Leonard's in 1974.
*[[North Texas Historic Transportation]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.jtbell.net/transit/FtWorth/ Tandy Subway History]
*[http://world.nycsubway.org/us/fortworth/ Pictures of Tandy Subway Cars in Fort Worth]
*[http://www.northtexastransport.org/ Parts of Subway preserved by North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc.]
*[https://www.flickr.com/photos/limebye/sets/72157623394182793/ Pictures of Tandy Center Subway cars and facilities during the final days of operation]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsVEMQAykgc Video clip of Tandy Center Subway cars during the final week of operation]

{{RadioShack}}
{{coord missing|Texas}}

[[Category:Rapid transit in Texas]]
[[Category:Rail transportation in Fort Worth, Texas]]
[[Category:RadioShack]]
[[Category:Electric railways in Texas]]
[[Category:Subterranean railways]]
[[Category:Railway lines opened in 1963]]
[[Category:1963 establishments in Texas]]
[[Category:Railway lines closed in 2002]]
[[Category:2002 disestablishments in Texas]]