Public Service Car Runs

There's exciting news from Piscataway, New Jersey, today. Public Service Coordinated Transport 2651, one of just two of the system's big, iconic deck-roof passenger cars still in existence, was made operational again for the first time in something like 70 years. The car was salvaged as a car body in the 1970s, and for the last few decades has been the subject of an involved restoration project to make it complete and return it to operation. Its owner, the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society, posted some videos on their Facebook page showing the initial test "trips." For now, the car is in the Kinki-Sharyo plant in Piscataway, but rumors suggest it may be heading to a nearby trolley museum where it will have a chance to stretch its legs. For now, congrats to the NJERHS group on a major milestone for this historic car.

Northern Texas Traction car tracked down

I've been wondering for a while whatever happened to Northern Texas Traction 407. The car was put up for auction and sold in early 2024, supposedly to a buyer from North Carolina, but I wasn't able to figure out where it went until now. The photo shown here, from this Flickr page, was taken this July and I only noticed it now. It seems that car 407 was purchased by the Aberdeen Carolina & Western, a shortline railroad with a tourist railroad side business known for flashy paint jobs and unorthodox adaptive reuse projects. I cannot fathom what they have in mind for car 407, but for the moment it seems to just be in storage in their impressive car shop. I've updated the car's record and added the AC&W to the PNAERC database, as this is their first piece of traction equipment.

Cars for Sale

There are a couple of minor updates regarding electric cars for sale. First, Muni 1150, the ex-St. Louis Public Service PCC located in Le Grand, California, has officially been listed for sale in an online auction that concludes toward the end of October.

Judging from the photos, the car is in remarkably good shape. Other than the dust and dirt, it could have just pulled in from a revenue trip. It's quite the time capsule. With luck, this will go somewhere that can continue to keep it stored inside, though given the glut of PCCs, car 1150 will probably be fortunate to be purchased for preservation at all.

And in other news, it was pointed out to me that New Haven 4106, the only surviving "pre-Washboard" MU car from that railroad, has supposedly been sold. At least, that's what the Ozark Mountain listing says. I don't have any recent information on this car, including who might have bought it or when, so any updates would be appreciated. Although it's far - very far - from complete as an MU car, it's certainly an historic piece.

WMATA 2000s Added to the List

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced today that they'd shipped the last of their 2000-series subway cars off to scrap - the last, that is, except for the pair they've set aside for preservation. Those cars weren't on the PNAERC list until now, but I've just added WMATA 2000 and 2001 to the database.

These two cars were built by Breda in 1981 and in terms of overall construction, they're extremely similar to the other WMATA cars that entered preservation a few years back. They were overhauled around 2002 or so and at that time they acquired upgraded inverter control and AC traction motors. This seems to have made them more reliable than the older 1000s, which acquired earlier-generation AC motors in the mid-1990s; the 4000s, which were never upgraded with AC motors; or even the 5000s, which were built in 2001 with AC motors. (The 3000s, built in the late 1980s and upgraded with AC motors around 2009, are still in service.) The last 2000-series cars were retired just about a year ago, in October 2024, and cars 2000-2001 were in the ceremonial last-day-of-service train (pictured above in a photo from here). As far as I know, cars 2000-2001 are stored in Greenbelt Yard along with the other six cars in the WMATA historic fleet.

And in other positive news, thanks to Anderson Pries for sending the above photo taken last weekend of Chicago Aurora & Elgin 316 at the Fox River Trolley Museum. The occasion was the dedication of this 1913 Jewett-built interurban car following a major restoration effort, and sister car 20 - the oldest operating interurban car in the country, but mostly out of service pending wheel work - came out for the first time in a few years for the occasion as well. Car 316's status has been updated to reflect that it is no longer under restoration, but has joined the FRTM operating fleet.