Many thanks to Nate Wells for sending me the above photo, taken in 2019, of a car that had dropped off my radar entirely. Virginia Electric Power Company 1215 is a standard Birney safety car built by American in 1919 for VEPCO's Petersburg system. The car's body ended up in Amelia County, where it was rescued in the 1980s. Later damaged in a tornado, I had last seen evidence of it about 10 or 15 years ago, at which time it was stored in poor condition under a bridge in Petersburg. I had switched its condition to "situation unknown" which in this case meant that I wasn't even sure it still existed.
It turns out that the car does still exist, though for better or worse its condition hasn't really changed. It's still in Petersburg but is now in covered storage awaiting possible future restoration. VEPCO 1240, built as part of the same order but assigned to Richmond rather than Petersburg, provides a model for the possibilities.
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