Orange Empire updates

I had a chance to visit Orange Empire for the first time in some 13 years last week and it was quite an interesting visit. It was during the week, so nothing was running, but the volunteers there were kind enough to show me around and take me through all of the barns. The "new" barn, the six-track behemoth towards the east side of the property, was especially impressive. And as one might expect, the visit resulted in a number of changes to the PNAERC listings for equipment owned by the museum.

First there is Bamberger 127, shown below, the ex-Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville "Bullet car" which was formerly listed as under restoration. The restoration effort seems to be paused for the moment so it's been changed to "displayed inoperable."

Nearby in the same barn was San Diego Electric Railway 508, an early PCC that was sitting forlornly outdoors the last time I saw it around 2005 but has now been beautifully repainted inside and out and looks like it's nearly ready for service. Its status has been changed to "undergoing restoration" though it may already be a regular service car, I'm not completely certain. Off to the right is Pacific Electric 1624 which has been changed from "stored" to "displayed."

And then there was the line of Pacific Electric "Hollywood cars" shown below. Orange Empire owns no fewer than five of these cars: car 717 is one of their regular service cars while car 655 was recently acquired in semi-restored condition and is in line for restoration work. That leaves the three cars below, which a decade ago were stored outside (as attested by their faded appearance) on display but are now stored safely inside the new barn. However they're not really on public exhibit - at least I don't think they are, as the volunteer docent showing me around didn't seem familiar with this part of the barn - so their condition has been changed from "display" to "stored." From left to right that's car 637, car 716, and car 5123.

In that same part of the new barn was Pacific Electric 1000, the business car "Commodore." It too has been changed from "displayed" to "stored."

Below is San Diego Electric Railway 1003, ex-Utah Light & Traction 656, whose condition belies its historical significance as the only preserved city car from Salt Lake City. Similarly to the "Hollywood" cars this car used to be stored in a fairly prominent display position on the OERM property. It has also been changed from "displayed" to "stored" but it has made its way to the far back of the property on the other side of the fence. I assume it's still owned by the museum though.

And finally there's Los Angeles Transit Lines 1435, which I was surprised to see at Orange Empire at all since the last I knew it was privately owned and stored in Los Angeles. But I shouldn't have been surprised, as this blog post from the ATRRM blog points out that the car arrived in Perris in early 2016. Unfortunately it has arrived to be scrapped; Orange Empire owns two other cars from this exact series in better condition, 1423 and 1450, and car 1435 is missing a great number of parts that were stripped by Muni for eventual use on Johnstown 351. The ATRRM post also corrects an error formerly included in the car's PNAERC listing; I had thought the ill-fated trip north from Orange Empire, and subsequent transfer to Muni, was in 1993 but this suggests it was actually 1975. That has been corrected and the car's ownership has been changed from Electric Railway Historical Association to OERM.

And then there were a few cars that had changed since my last visit or just caught my eye, even if no PNAERC changes were made. Below is Los Angeles Transit Lines 2601, the very unusual prototype Peter Witt. This is a rare example of a traditional pre-PCC car. Not many streetcars were built between the onset of the Depression and the advent of the PCC so this car is a rarity. It is undergoing a thorough and long-term restoration.

Another long-term restoration is Pacific Electric 498, the museum's "Blimp" combine. This ex-Interurban Electric Railway car has just recently been painted and looks gorgeous. As with SDER 508, its restoration may be just about done but I'm not entirely sure.

There isn't really anything new about PE 1001, I'm just a fan of big wooden interurban cars. What a classic! To the far right is PE 655, mentioned earlier.

Here's something of a mystery: Orange Empire owns three "Huntington standard" bodies of Los Angeles Railways cars, cars 744, 807, and 836. Anyone know which one this photo shows? UPDATE: John Smatlak confirms that this is indeed car 744.

This isn't Orange Empire per se, but rather a next door neighbor. Visible from the back of the property are two Los Angeles Railway "sow-belly" center-entrance car bodies, cars 34 and 44, listed under Electric Railway Historical Association ownership and located on private property adjacent to the museum. (OERM has a car of this class, LARy 936, in much better shape.) Also located on the property are the body of San Diego 201 and a Toronto PCC.

You can even see them on Google aerial photos. Who knows...