Clang-clang-clang or ding-ding-ding, Kilgore Main Street Advisory Board members hope to hear the sound of a trolley rolling down Main Street soon.

How soon depends on “how much.”

Discussion on the vintage vehicle sprang up as part of a parking debate during the board’s monthly meeting last week. Kilgore Main Street Manager Melida Heien has reached out to Union Pacific Railroad for information about the availability of land on either side of Main Street on the northwest flank of the railroad.

“Really, I think, in order to have an event corridor” on Commerce Street, she said, “you have to have places for people to put their cars.”

The land in question is already in general use as unimproved parking for nearby businesses and during annual, large-scale events like the East Texas Oilmen’s Chili Cookoff and the Mt. Kilgore Snow Hill Festival.

“It’s a mud pit,” Heien said, but “People park there anyway.”

In pro bono work last year with Adams Engineering and students from Stephen F. Austin’s Center for a Livable World, general designs pegged 400-plus possible parking spaces in the railroad-adjacent property.

Continue talks with Union Pacific, advisory board chairman Bill Woodall recommended, and begin the necessary lease paperwork for further consideration.

In the meantime, “One of the merchants has brought up the possibility of getting a trolley or some kind of train,” Heien said, to help alleviate event-oriented parking problems caused by the current dearth of designated spaces downtown. “Obviously, we don’t have the money budgeted for something like this, but it could be something that could be shared by several entities. I think it would make its money back very quickly.”

Loose costs discussed Wednesday ranged from $25,000 to $30,000 for a used trolley with, give or take, seating for 50.

Advisory board members agreed to price some vehicles and schedule a trolley discussion for a future meeting.