Syracuse Lake Shore & Northern 200

Many thanks to Thomas Mafrici, the owner of Syracuse Lake Shore & Northern 200, who has sent several photos showing the car's current condition and its original appearance. He has also provided some additional information about the car.

Car 200 is quite historic, as it is the only known survivor from the famous Beebe Syndicate of interurban lines radiating from Syracuse, New York. It was built by Cincinnati in 1906 as a classic heavy interurban coach. According to Mr Mafrici, it was originally built with L-control, which would make it only the second car known to be preserved that once had that type of control. (It's thought that later in life it had MU control, as cars on the SLS&N were known to run MU.) Edit: Bill Wulfert points out that a third car, Northwestern Elevated 24, was also built with L-control but was later rebuilt with GE Type M control.

Though it wasn't a terribly long line, the SLS&N was built to very high standards and photos taken along the line could almost have been seen along the Skokie Valley line of the North Shore which was built 15 years later. Anyway, car 200 was retired in 1931 when the SLS&N was abandoned and was made into a house or shed. Sometime in the 1990s it was salvaged for preservation and knocked around between a few different organizations, always in outdoor storage and increasingly decrepit, until Mr Manfredi acquired it in 2014 and put it inside a building.

To say the car is rough is a bit of an understatement. The photo at the top of this post shows its best side; the other side (top photo above) is much less complete and both ends (lower photo above) are missing. However Mr Mafrici intends to rebuild the car and restore it, at least as a non-operating display. It will be a big project but this car is certainly deserving of some attention.