Monday, January 29, 2018

New Jersey historic cars

Image may contain: train and outdoor
Piscataway Township in New Jersey, of all things, has posted on Facebook some photos of a selection of historic New Jersey electric cars. The post shows photos of two cars owned by the United Railroad Historical Society and one car owned by the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society, which is closely affiliated with URHS. NJ Transit 5221 and NJ Transit 5223 are rather aged work cars that until only a decade ago served on the Newark subway system. Both of these are cars whose histories are somewhat uncertain; car 5223 in particular is a bit of a mystery, as it was obviously rebuilt from a standard passenger car but which one is unknown to me. The third car is PSCT 2651, a Public Service standard car built in 1917 and subject of a slow long-term restoration effort by NJERHS. (Until now this car has been listed on the roster under the railway name "New Jersey Consolidated Transport" but that has been corrected to PSCT.) All three cars are apparently stored at the site of a Kinkisharyo plant in Piscataway where subway cars from Atlanta will soon be undergoing rebuild. What the long-term plans are for these cars, which have knocked around various locations in the northeast including the National Capital Trolley Museum and Lyons Industries in Pennsylvania, is uncertain.

And now for the appeal for help: does anyone have any mechanical information on these cars?

2 comments:

  1. 2083 in this eBay listing looks fairly reminiscent of 5223: https://www.ebay.com/itm/PUBLIC-SERVICE-OF-NEW-JERSEY-8-ORIGINAL-B-W-TROLLEY-NEGATIVES-OF-CARS-1-PRICE/391990091145

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  2. Good find! It does indeed. Very interesting.

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