"owl car" phrase ??

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 16 Jan 2002, bruce d. boling wrote:

#An owl car was a streetcar that ran through the night (as opposed to those
#that ceased their runs at, say, midnight) .  Certain heavily patronized
#streetcar lines typically provided all-night service.  Often owl cars might
#run slightly different routes from those they ran during the day; separate
#routes might also be combined for owl car service.

Ping! Connection!! Just today or yesterday I saw a sign at a
Boston "T" (public transit) streetcar stop with an owl
perched on the stylized "T" and a text something like "The
night shuttle stops here too!" I don't remember if the text
used the word "owl", but of course the owl is a standard
symbol of nighttime activity, and a "night owl" a person who
is active at night.

-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguist at Large