Drill motor goes to Kingston

New York City Transit Authority 41, a "drill motor" (known everywhere else as a cab-on-flat locomotive) built by Magor in 1930, has been acquired by the Trolley Museum of New York and has been moved to the TMNY site in Kingston. The photo above is from a Facebook post from the museum (no log-in required).

The history of this unique piece of equipment in recent decades is slightly muddy. It was built for the IND in 1930 and was apparently used in service into the 1970s. Around 1978, I believe, it was acquired by the Trolley Museum of New York but was never moved to the TMNY site in Kingston (I'm not sure TMNY was even in Kingston that early). It remained at Coney Island under the oversight of New York Transit Museum and later, possibly starting around 2008, under the oversight of the Railway Preservation Corporation, which owns several of the cars in the NYCTA historic fleet. The TMNY Facebook post describes this as "an extended loan to the New York Transit Museum... under the care of the Railway Preservation Corporation." But it is now at home in Kingston in the company of a handful of other New York subway cars. Though not operational, the car is (I believe) complete and it appears to be pretty solid. Many thanks to Mark Wolodarsky for sending along this update.

San Diego car bodies acquired by SDERA

The San Diego Electric Railway Association has announced on Facebook (no login required) that they have acquired the three preserved Class 1 streetcars built for San Diego in 1912. Their newsletter from the end of last year confirms that these cars, all of which were owned by the late Chris Chaffee and preserved under the auspices of his "Historic San Diego Class 1 Streetcars" organization, were donated to SDERA by Mr Chaffee's widow.

All three cars were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1912 and were retired at the end of the 1930s. Car 138, shown in the photo above from the SDERA Facebook post, is in the best condition and its body was cosmetically restored by Mr Chaffee. The car had made occasional appearances in parades in this restored condition. The other two are car 126 and car 128, both also pictured in the Facebook post. These two are in worse condition but from the photo they still appear to be reasonably solid, no doubt aided considerably by the arid climate.

All three cars served as houses from c1939 until acquired by Mr Chaffee in 1996. Car 138 is now on display at the SDERA site at National City while the other two are stored towards the back of the property. These three cars were the only cars on the PNAERC list to have been owned by "HSDC1S" so that organization is now a former, not current, owner, and SDERA's collection (not counting a couple of foreign cars) is up to eight cars. Considering that 20 years ago SDERA owned none of these cars and that six of the eight are of local significance, that's pretty impressive.

Missing streetcar in the Upper Peninsula

I keep a list of "mystery cars," most of which appear to have been preserved at some point but then dropped off the radar. One of these is the car pictured here: Marquette County Gas Light & Traction 15.

I'm not sure who built it for MCGL&T, a small streetcar line that ran between Ishpeming and Negaunee in Michigan's Upper Peninsula between 1893 and 1927. It may have been purchased secondhand. But it was in existence as recently as 2014 according to this newsletter (PDF) posted online by the Negaunee Historical Society. At that time, the car was said to have been moved from a previous storage location outside the Negaunee Senior Center to a "temporary storage" site. A 2010 forum post here provides additional information, including the car's fleet number: 15. The post also indicates that 2010 was when the car was moved from the Senior Center and claims that it was moved to the Tracy Mine, an abandoned mine east of Negaunee. Google aerial images and online "urban explorer" photos show some pretty impressive extant buildings at the Tracy Mine site but no sign of the streetcar. I've tried contacting the Negaunee Historical Society but without luck.

So, anyone know what happened to MCGSL&T 15? Is it still at the Tracy Mine site, possibly even stored inside one of the buildings? Or was it demolished or otherwise lost during the last seven years?

EDIT: This car has now been added to the PNAERC list, but not as a MCGSL&T car! See here.

Warehouse Point questions

"Hey," you say, "that's not an electric car." And it surely isn't. It's the LEV2, a British railbus constructed in 1980 by Leyland/Wickham and intended as a prototype for the American market. But railbuses were never as popular in the US as they were in Britain and this unloved example bounced around a bit before landing at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, CT.

It was one of several pieces of equipment deaccessed by CTM in 2018 and offered for sale. As outlined in this blog post, the sale also included six pieces of electric equipment: both of the museum's North Shore interurban cars, a Long Island Railroad MP54 commuter coach, a Canadian National boxcab electric locomotive, and two Chicago 4000-series 'L' cars.

The reason this post features the LEV2 is that it has come to light within the past week that the British railbus is no more. Despite efforts to buy it from CTM and possibly repatriate it to the UK, the museum has apparently cut it up. Rumor has it that at least one of the North Shore cars may also have been cut up, despite offers from other museum groups to acquire that car as a parts source for other restoration projects. So the question is: can anyone confirm what electric cars, if any, have been scrapped at Warehouse Point in the last couple of years? Are any of the six electrics offered up for sale in 2018 still available for sale? Any information is greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: this question has more-or-less been answered.

South Brooklyn steeplecab to Branford

Many thanks to Bill Wall for forwarding the above photo and the news that Branford has acquired the locomotive pictured, New York City Transit Authority 7. NYCTA 7 is a fairly standard GE steeplecab, though fitted with a flat roof for low clearance areas. It was built in 1925 for the South Brooklyn Railway and later in life performed maintenance and switching duties for the general subway system. I believe this was the last locomotive on the New York subway system with trolley poles. Anyway, it's complete and in pretty good shape, so it will make a great addition to the Branford collection. The photo shows the locomotive being loaded today, leaving New York City ground (probably) for the last time, and it is due to arrive at Branford tomorrow. Bill mentioned that Branford extends their thanks to the New York Transit Museum for making this long-sought-after locomotive available to the museum.

While locomotive 7 may have been the last steeplecab with trolley poles on the New York subway system, it's not the last steeplecab. The NYCTA/NYTM still has locomotive 6 on their property, built a few years earlier than 7 but virtually identical. And of course there's the very historic NYCTA 5, the last early-style arch-window GE steeplecab in existence, built in 1910 and now part of the NYTM collection.

UPDATE: Bill has sent along some additional photos of locomotive 7 being loaded onto its Silk Road trailer along the iconic Brooklyn waterfront. These are the locomotive's old stomping grounds, just about where the old South Brooklyn Railway 39th Street Yard and its interchange with the Bush Terminal Railroad were located. All photos are copyright Bill Wall - do not copy without permission.

Helena streetcar trailer added to list

Many thanks to John Csoka, who has sent me information on the streetcar trailer shown above in Helana, Montana. I've known about this car's existence for a while, and guessed that it was probably an original car (albeit heavily restored/reconstructed) and not a replica, but it wasn't on the PNAER list because I never had any information on its history. Until now!

John relates information from the book "Montana Trolleys" that the car in question, whose number is uncertain, was built in 1890 by Brownell and is from the Helena Light & Railway 16-19 series. These four open car trailers were renumbered from 27 and 30-32 and lasted until around 1928, very near the end of streetcar service in Helena. This particular car, along with a single-truck closed car body, ended up on a farm north of Helena until a junkyard owner in Silver Star, MT bought both of them in the 1960s. He cosmetically restored this car, presumably to its current, generally sympathetic if not painstakingly accurate, appearance. Soon it found its way to a stint on display in Nevada City, probably at the then-new Alder Gulch Shortline tourist railroad. Sometime around 1974 (judging from the plaque affixed to the car) it was moved to its current location on the Last Chance Gulch pedestrian mall in Helena and it has been on display here ever since. The photo above, taken by John, shows the car's current appearance.

I'm glad to add this car to the list, even if its precise identity isn't known. There are several preserved cars on the list whose fleet numbers aren't certain, but if I know who built them, when, and for whom, I'm satisfied that there's enough information to include them. This car is pretty historic, as it's the oldest of just eight preserved Brownell cars. It's also one of just two cars from Helena - which brings me back to that junkyard owner in Silver Star. The closed car he bought is still around, too, and like this open car it appears to be owned by the City of Helena. It's HL&R 3, and last I knew - per this online article - it was undergoing restoration at Capitol High School. But there's been no update for 12 years now. Anyone know where it has ended up?

Plow leaves Seashore

It came to my attention recently that MBTA 5122, one of several Boston snow plows converted from Type 3 semiconvertibles to have been acquired by the Seashore Trolley Museum, was sold last year. The above photo from here shows the car in 2010 and it wasn't in the best shape then, so it's not too hard to see why Seashore would be willing to let it go. It's the first electric car deaccessed by Seashore since they sent their Cleveland trailer to Northern Ohio in 2010.

Car 5122 was built by St. Louis in 1908 and was later rebuilt as a snow plow. It was one of six of these plows that made their way to Seashore, with most arriving in the 1990s and 2000s. This one showed up in Kennebunkport in 1995 and I'm not sure whether it ever ran at Seashore, but it was out of service for years (one or two of the other Type 3 snow plows in the collection are regular work cars and locomotives at the museum).

It was sold last year to the Samuel Slater Experience, the new museum in Webster, Massachusetts that only recently showed up on the PNAERC list as described here. Many thanks to Tom Tello for confirming this for me. As near as I can tell, SSE decided at some point that they needed a streetcar for their museum but it seems they've changed course once or twice deciding how best to accomplish that. This video on Facebook (no login required) is from November 2019 and describes efforts to have a replica streetcar built by a contractor. By mid-2020, it appears they had instead decided to acquire car 5122 from Seashore. And by October 2020, they were the proud owners of a Los Angeles Railway single-trucker in need of little or no restoration work.

I tried contacting the Webster museum but nobody got back to me, so I don't know what their plans are for 5122. Perhaps it will be restored and put elsewhere in the museum, or perhaps its role has been filled by the LARy car. If anyone finds out where it is and what its owners are doing with it, please let me know. In the meantime, on the PNAERC list its ownership has been updated and its status has been changed to "unknown."

EDIT: This car has been scrapped, as described here.