Postcard from Colfax

"Lovely weather - wish you were here!" Thanks to Joel Salomon for taking the above photo of Toronto PCC 4472 and to Wesley Paulson for passing this along to me (with Joel's permission to post it). TTC 4472 is a typical 4400-series PCC built for that city by St. Louis in 1949. It was purchased in 1990 by the Market Street Railway Association and moved to Muni property, but at some point they sold it to the private owner who goes by Tahoe Valley Lines PCC Railway (TVL). It has bounced around a bit; as of about 20 years ago it was stored in a scrapyard in Roseville, but in recent years it has been located in Colfax, California. It's supposedly for sale, if you're in the market for a Toronto PCC.

This is one of just three cars still part of the once-sizable TVL collection of PCC cars. Most of the collection was sold around 2007 to a real estate developer in St. Charles, MO, but that outfit went bust in the 2008 recession and the entire lot of cars was unceremoniously scrapped without warning. Besides 4472, there is the bizarre creation dubbed 102435 that was made by welding together half of Muni 1024 and half of Muni 1035 to create a double-ended PCC; and a second Toronto PCC, 4404. This car was also owned by MSRA but was stored in Oakland in the early 1990s. The trouble is, I can't find any information on this car more recent than 2007, when it was listed for sale. It may be stored on the property in South Lake Tahoe along with car 102435, but does anyone know for certain?