PCC restoration complete in St. Louis

As noted on our sister Hicks Car Works blog, this summer the restoration of St. Louis Public Service 1743 was completed (or, at least, substantially completed) by Museum of Transportation volunteers. The car's status on the PNAERC list has been updated from "undergoing restoration" to "operated occasionally" although it may be in more regular use, I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, this is the only car currently in service in SLPS livery anywhere, despite there being a sizable number of ex-SLPS PCC cars still in existence owing to their service into the 1980s in San Francisco.

Addition and transfers

First off for today, San Diego LRV 1001 - the class car of that city's first order for modern LRVs for its first light rail line in the early 1980s - has been added to the list. The car has been designated for preservation by the San Diego system and has been assigned to the San Diego Vintage Trolley historic fleet there. This makes car 1001 the fifth car of its type to be preserved; there are two more in Rio Vista, one at Orange Empire and one out east at Rockhill Trolley Museum.

I also updated a couple of the Lackawanna MU cars that were already on the roster. A 2014 photo of car 3607, one of the 1930 motor cars, came to my attention showing that the car has been sold by the Everett Railroad in Pennsylvania to the Durbin & Greenbriar Valley (though lettered for West Virginia Central, a subsidiary of the D&GV) in West Virginia. It was on the Everett in 2005 but I'm not sure exactly when it went to West Virginia; anyone have an exact date? This is one of the ex-Knox & Kane cars, most of which were sold to Heber Valley in Utah where they are currently in use.

And finally, club car 2454's ownership was changed to the Whippany Railway Museum. This had already been listed in the car's notes, as it was formally donated to WRM by former owner United Railroad Historical Society in 2014, but I hadn't changed the owner in the database since the car hadn't left Boonton. However the car is currently undergoing restoration at Star Trak in Boonton on behalf of Whippany so I figured I may as well correct and update the car's owner. This ought to be a very impressive restoration when it's done; these Lackawanna club cars were very distinct pieces.

South Shore trailers scrapped

Robert MacDowell from the Southern Michigan Railway e-mailed me to confirm that the two South Shore interurban trailers in French Lick, Indiana at the Indiana Railway Museum have indeed been scrapped. The cars in question were 204 and 206, built by Pullman in 1927 and lengthened by the South Shore later in life. These were the only two electric cars owned by "the other IRM" so it's no longer a current owner on the PNAERC list. The number of surviving South Shore 200-series coach trailers is thus reduced from four to two, with one at East Troy and one stored in rough shape in Noblesville, Indiana still extant.

In happier news, I've also updated Hot Spring Street Railway 50 at the Fort Smith Trolley Museum. It's no longer "undergoing restoration" but is now in regular service, having been formally dedicated back in May (I was obviously a little slow on the uptake on this one). The restoration took 16 years and involved rebuilding the car from a body, always an impressive accomplishment.