A New Home for Ottawa 696

Thanks to Sean Bowen and Jordan Helzer, who sent me this link to a Facebook post from the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in May. Ottawa 696, the oldest double-truck car from that city in preservation, has been moved to a new location. It has moved from its longtime home in an OC Transpo bus garage to the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls, which is an organization new to PNAERC. RMEO has a small collection of steam-road equipment clustered around the town's rather impressive railway station, but car 696 is their first streetcar.

I don't have any insider information on car 696 or this transfer, but the photos posted of the move (including the one shown here) make it clear that the car's condition is similar to the photos on PNAERC taken back in 2018, suggesting that the major rebuilding project that was underway may have largely ground to a halt sometime back. As for the car's new home, RMEO does have a single-track barn, so my hope - especially given that the car doesn't have windows - is that car 696 is going in there and not remaining outside. The museum posted that there are no current plans for an operational restoration, but they do plan to complete restoration work on the car's body and possibly tow it around with a diesel.

Another question, since OC Transpo has divested itself of car 696, is what might happen to Ottawa 905, the other car owned by the city transit agency. While 1917-vintage car 696 is the oldest double-truck Ottawa car in preservation, 1933-vintage car 905 is the newest extant streetcar from the city. It was rescued out of a house in 2004 and has been stored in the same bus garage as 696 for some time, but it's a car body without any interior or running gear.

The Spirit of 1776

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has rolled out their second striking, one-off PCC livery in as many years, this time in honor of the semiquincentennial. As shown above, Port Authority Transit 1799, a 1945 air-electric car, has been painted in a livery seen on the streets of Pittsburgh around the bicentennial in 1976. It's a striking color scheme that built off the then-current "banded" color layout used by PAT. The car was debuted today to much (literal) fanfare.

Now, there is an asterisk with this one. Unlike the "Terrible Trolley," this isn't really an accurate livery for this particular car. PAT did field a car with this exact livery, but it was (unsurprisingly) their car 1776, which did not survive into preservation. Car 1799 is identical; built as car 1613, it was overhauled in 1979 and received the number 1799 at that time. The original "Spirit of 1776" car began life as car 1616 and was overhauled in 1974, which is when it received the number 1776 and this livery.

But I don't think anyone's complaining. Car 1799 was saved by PTM to prevent it from being scrapped, but was in poor mechanical shape and had been considered "deaccessioned" by the museum for years. This new livery is quite the renaissance. I assume that 1799/"Spirit of 1776" is now considered part of the collection; although the car is not operational, at least not for now, it's certainly a striking display piece. I've updated its status from "storage" to "display." Kudos to everyone at PTM who made this happen!

Austin Birney Located

Thanks to Steve Baron for alerting me to a Facebook post from yesterday that brought to light a car I wasn't aware existed. Austin Street Railway 63 is the last surviving (as far as I know!) car from that city's system. It's always fun to find a previously unknown survivor.

This car is a Birney, obviously enough. According to Harold Cox's book on Birneys, Austin 63-65 were acquired secondhand from Southwestern Gas & Electric, the street railway in Texarkana, Arkansas. The date of their acquisition is uncertain, but the Texarkana system shut down in 1934, so that's as good a guess as any. Unfortunately, the Texarkana numbers of the three secondhand cars are unknown; that city had a total of 10 Birneys, of which four were built by American in 1919, two were built by Cincinnati in 1921, two more were built by American in 1923, and then there were two Brill-built cars purchased secondhand from Boston.

So now we get to the fun part: sleuthing by process of elimination. First, I suspect this isn't a Boston car, mainly because those cars had an unusual single marker over the center window. Then, as luck would have it, we have an in-service photo here that shows this exact car, number 63. You can tell from the photo that it's got a Brill 79E1 truck, which - according to builder's order lists, at least - rules out the two Cincinnati-built cars. Remarkably, the two orders Texarkana placed with American also had different types of trucks. The four cars built in 1919 had Brill 78M1F trucks, which differ noticeably from the 79E1 (a photo of one of the 1919 Texarkana cars with 78M1F trucks is here).

So, there we have it. My tentative conclusion is that this is a 1923 car, built by American on order #1354, and that its Texarkana number was either 28 or 29. I can't be absolutely certain - either owner of the car could have swapped trucks - but I'm comfortable enough to put that information down for car 63 on the PNAERC roster. Either way, it's a moderately significant car as Birneys go, given that it's the last survivor from both the Texarkana and Austin systems. It looks well taken care of at the moment, and hopefully that continues. The PNAERC list overall now stands at 2,089 cars.

WMATA 1000 makes an appearance

The first - though, I'm predicting, not the last - car on the PNAERC list to be repainted especially for the semiquincentennial, Washington Metro (WMATA) 1000 has shown up on the National Mall for display over the next couple of weeks according to this Facebook post. The car has been cosmetically restored to its as-built condition, at least from the looks of the photos, and really does look quite nice. It's being displayed alongside a mockup of the next generation of WMATA cars.

Car 1000, the very first Washington Metro car, was built by Rohr in 1974. It has been on the PNAERC list since 2019, but until now, I haven't been able to find a single photo of it. It, and the other cars in the WMATA historic fleet, have been securely stored deep in Greenbelt Yard in Maryland, and this is the first picture of any of these cars I've seen that was taken since they were marked for preservation. I'm not sure what the status is of car 1001, this car's mate, but hopefully it's still stored back at Greenbelt - and maybe even repainted along with car 1000.

News Roundup

Unusually enough, there's news today from a few different directions, and on a few different topics.

First off, thanks to Bill Wall for passing along the news that Seashore has again updated their "re-homing list."

Most of the cars on it are the same as the last edition, but there are three new additions that the museum has decided to deaccession. The first, pictured above in a photo taken way back in 1998, is Knoxville Power & Light 410. This is a single-truck curve-side car built by Cincinnati in 1924 and retired in 1939. It's a body, of course, and is in rough shape if the 28-year-old photo is any indication. This car is a bit odd in that it's simultaneously rare and, yet, not rare. There are only six Cincinnati curve-side cars in existence, however three of them are Knoxville single-truck bodies identical to car 410. And the other two are in much better condition than car 410: car 416 has been fully (albeit non-operationally) restored in its hometown, while car 419 is unrestored but preserved in solid condition at IRM as a body.

The other two additions to the re-homing list are true oddballs on the PNAERC list. They're both diminutive rail grinders built in 1913 by the Goldschmidt Thermit Company for the Boston Elevated Railway. Above is MBTA 0517, which has certainly seen better days.

And here's MBTA 3234 (both of these photos were taken within the past few months and were printed in the new re-homing list). I'll confess, I recall seeing these cars sitting off on a siding at Seashore for many years but not until now did I know which one was which! Anyway, there was a time that small, purpose-built rail grinders like this were not uncommon on street railways. They're exceedingly rare now, though; my best guess is that they were just exceedingly uninteresting to the fans running the trolley museums back in the 1950s. Most surviving rail grinders were rebuilt from streetcars or, at the very least, had interesting car bodies. Besides these two, I think the only rail grinder of this general outline on the PNAERC list is the Kerwin-built example preserved in Mexico City.

There are now a total of 34 cars at Seashore on the PNAERC roster that have been deaccessioned, offered to other organizations, or designated for disposal. That's about 18% of their traction collection.

And now, let's proceed a few miles to the southwest and visit another one of the "three sisters," the Connecticut Trolley Museum.

The news from CTM is the precise opposite of the news from Seashore: in this case, a car is being re-accessioned. The car in question is Long Island Rail Road 4153, an MP54A1 commuter car built by AC&F in 1930. Way back in 2018, CTM deaccessioned this car and made it available to other organizations. It hasn't found a taker. However, the museum has now elected to retain it for their historic collection after all. This is good from an historical standpoint because there are very few MP54's still remaining in anything resembling original condition; in fact, I'd say there are only two, this car and sister car 1149 in Syracuse (and I don't know how complete that car is). I'm also pretty sure 4153 is the most recent MP54 to operate, as it did run at CTM during the 1970s, and maybe more recently. Many thanks to [correction!] Andy Borst of CTM for letting me know about 4153's status change.

And finally, a few more miles to the southwest, some disconcerting news comes tonight from our friends at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. They've announced on their Facebook page (full text of the announcement is below, for the record) that they have lost the use of their railroad except on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons. The other four days of the week, and the mornings of these three days, their line has been requisitioned by the East Broad Top for use by a railbike operation.

The EBT has always owned the land under RTM's railroad, but for some 60 years the two organizations have operated side-by-side in what has seemed like a mutually beneficial arrangement. I'm not sure exactly what to extrapolate from this news, but I hope that the EBT finds somewhere else to put their railbikes and that they return to the past state of equilibrium with the trolley museum.

Announcement text:

Rockhill Trolley Museum would like to extend a sincere apology to our valued visitors for an upcoming change to our operating schedule.

Beginning July 1, 2026, East Broad Top Railroad will be operating standard-gauge rail bikes on our trolley line Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday through Sunday from 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

Due to the change being out of our control, we are required to limit trolley rides to Friday through Sunday with departures at: 12:45 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:15 PM, and 4:30 PM. Museum store hours are being finalized and will be announced as soon as they are updated.

Purchasing trolley tickets can still be done in our museum store or online at rockhilltrolley.org and are valid for unlimited rides on the date they are redeemed. Please note our tickets are no longer available through East Broad Top Railroad at the station or online.

We understand schedule changes can be disappointing, and we sincerely regret any inconveniences. Your continued support is greatly appreciated as our volunteers continue to provide a welcoming and educational visitor experience. We look forward to seeing you this season!

South Shore 32 Scrapped

In a post today on the Ahead of the Torch Facebook group, it was confirmed that Seashore has scrapped South Shore interurban car 32. This is no great loss; of the 40 coaches operated by the CSS&SB between the 1920s and the early 1980s, no fewer than 27 - a full two-thirds - are still in existence, including "flanking" cars 30, 31, 33, and 34. This particular car was in particularly bad condition because its frame was damaged during transportation to Maine. It was deaccessioned by Seashore in 2022 but found no takers; Seashore coordinated with East Troy volunteers to allow that museum to harvest some parts off the car this spring. The Seashore collection, at least on the PNAERC roster, is now down to 185 cars, and the overall roster stands at 2,088 pieces.

Postcard from Canada

I owe a big thank you to our official researcher, Wesley Paulson, who just returned from a visit to the Halton County Radial Railway in Canada and sent several updates and photos to help fill out and update the PNAERC list.

Wesley was able to nab some photos of cars at HCRY that are pictured on the PNAERC roster, but whose images are either poor or outdated. Above is TTC C1, a 1911 derrick, which has deftly evaded most photographers visiting the museum. The only photo I had of this car dated to (I think?) the 1990s.

This single-truck rail grinder, TTC RT7, was rebuilt from a Toronto Civic Railway streetcar. I didn't have any decent photos at all of this car, though that's understandable given that it's not on public display.

Every museum has one or two cars that were disassembled, either in part or in full, for a restoration project that then stalled. TTC 1704, shown here, is awaiting a future restart of a major rebuilding. This car is identical to TTC 1706 at Branford.

Wesley also got some mechanical information I was missing. And above is an "oops," though it's not immediately obvious. TTC 4089 is part of the TTC's historic fleet, all of which are currently stored at HCRY while their carbarn is rebuilt. It's a standard CLRV built in 1979. The "oops" is that until now, it's been listed on the PNAERC list not as 4089 but as 4081. That's been corrected now, though.

Another update was that TTC 4024, a CLRV also built in 1979 and pictured above in 2022, was scrapped last year. This is no particular loss; it was acquired from TTC in 2020 as a parts source. It's now been removed from the PNAERC list, leaving an even dozen CLRVs on the list in addition to two articulated ALRVs.

Finally, speaking of ALRVs, TTC 4207 is part of the TTC historic fleet that's now at HCRY, but until now I hadn't noted it as being at Halton County. That's now been corrected. Thanks again to Wesley for all this helpful information!