Five Mile Beach Electric open car to be restored

From this press release comes the news that Five Mile Beach Electric 20, one of four open cars preserved from the FMBE and the only one currently in "car body" condition, has been donated by former owner Wildwood Trolley to Liberty Historic Railway. The former organization acquired the car something like 25-30 years ago and since then had stored it in a building in Wildwood, but early plans to restore the car collapsed and it had simply been in dead storage for many years. The car hasn't just been donated to LHR, however: that organization has shipped it to Gomaco in Iowa to be restored. The scope of the rebuild isn't clear from the press release - it's not obvious whether this is intended to be an operational restoration or a more limited cosmetic one - but it's very encouraging that significant resources are being put into this car. Many thanks to Bill Wall for bringing this to my attention.

LHR has now expanded its collection of streetcars from zero to two in a matter of months, having acquired the body of Trenton Street Railway 288 - a rare car which makes FMBE 20 look like a gem - in late 2018. Car 288, which is fairly significant, has been stabilized and tarped. Car 20 is also pretty historic in its own right and stands to be the only FMBE car preserved in the Garden State.

UPDATE: This article was posted on February 1st in the Cape May County Herald stating that some $300,000 had been donated towards the restoration of FMBE 20 and, moreover, that LHR's plan is for an operational restoration of car 20. Evidently the intention is to operate it at an as-yet-nonexistent railway museum in Boonton, the current home of the United Railroad Historical Society.