The latest "mystery car" about which I'm looking for information is
Asheville 117, a 1927 Brill Birney body that last I knew was owned by Charlotte Trolley. Charlotte Trolley started as a small volunteer-run heritage trolley line that morphed into a government-funded heritage trolley line, and eventually that morphed into a full-blown light rail system with a few of the government-funded heritage cars running over a portion of the route. The original volunteer-run fleet of historic cars was left out. The "mother car,"
Charlotte 85, is now at the railroad museum in Spencer, a
Birney from Virginia went to Colorado and a
Red Arrow car was recently sold to Branford. A
Connecticut Company car body was placed on display in the new "Powerhouse Center" in Charlotte. But whatever happened to the Asheville Birney body? It's the car in the right foreground of the above photo and I vaguely recall seeing it in person around 15 years ago. The old car barn seems to have been converted into a coffee shop of some sort so I don't think it's there. Is it still in existence? If so, anyone know where it is? (I should also note that an identical car,
Asheville 119, is preserved elsewhere in North Carolina.)
SOLVED: See the comments for the skinny on car 117, which apparently is indeed still in storage somewhere in Charlotte. It sounds like its future is somewhat in limbo at the moment but there are parties interested in preserving it in the area.
Hello Frank - the Asheville Birney body is stored in Charlotte. Charlotte Trolley Inc is pretty much reduced to one staff person and a BOD that meets now and again. The storefront in South End has become very valuable, and is little used, so I think it will not be a part time trolley museum for much longer. The startup in nearby Gaston County, Belmont Trolley, is working to see if some arrangement might be made to make productive use of what remains of Charlotte Trolley's assets including the Asheville Birney body. Belmont Trolley owns a complete Oporto body from Canada which is undergoing a very slow restoration while the main effort of Belmont is organizing and preparing for construction of a carbarn / visitors center in downtown Belmont and service between Belmont terminal and somewhere near Mount Holly on the old branch of the P&N. Belmont Trolley's larger long term mission is developing a southeastern regional trolley museum with an assortment of cars of different styles and types from different trolley lines in the southeast. The Greek car is also at Spencer in storage, and the other Birney was a Fort Collins car restored cosmetically for a South Carolina organization before CT bought it but never put it in service - it essentially went back home. The Red Arrow was not owned by CT but belonged to a now deceased member who was originally from Philadelphia. It's good that it is going to where it will be put to some use as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Charlotte Trolley line didn't exactly morph into a light rail line - it sort of helped pave the way for the light rail line, though. Sharing tracks with historic cars and modern LRVs was impractical, so CT was kind of relegated sideways and had no real mission other than a static museum once light rail began. Car 85 was Gomacoized before that decision was made - and some Gomaco cars now run on the initial part of the new streetcar line which will also be replaced with modern stock when the line grows long enough to be a real transit rather than demonstration operation. 85 does not share track with the Gomaco cars either.
Thanks for the confirmation! It's good to know that the Asheville car is still safe in storage.
ReplyDelete