East Troy updates

I was able to visit the East Troy Electric Railroad this past weekend for the first time in some years (see the Hicks Car Works blog for a full report) and this visit resulted in some updates and corrections to the PNAERC roster. First, I was able to update the status of several cars, including South Shore cars like car 33 - acquired from the National Park Service in 2010 - which have been put into service. Additionally, I confirmed that South Shore car 21, which had been largely stripped for parts and was in use as a storeroom and office when I was last at East Troy some 15 years ago, was parted out and scrapped. The car was in poor condition when acquired by East Troy in the 1990s and its roof had further deteriorated, so it made sense given the presence of another ten South Shore cars also on the property (some 20% of the railroad's entire passenger fleet!).

And finally, I had the chance to inspect Twin Cities Rapid Transit car 1583 and update some of its mechanical info. Acquired back in the 1970s by the Wisconsin Trolley Museum (ancestor to ETER) as a body, the car is now confirmed to be fitted with Boston Blue Line trucks and motors. Its controllers are a mystery; though "Type 25LB" is cast into their tops, along with some wording in French that betrays their Belgian origin, I have no idea what company may have manufactured them. Help? The car also has an air compressor that resembles a GE CP-something-or-other but was actually manufactured by SEM, another Belgian company. So that pump is currently listed as simply an "SEM" though if I can figure out what CP-type pump it resembles that may change.