Another mystery

Once again I'm trying to clear up some of the unknowns on the PNAERC roster. Today's focus is on a pair of Lackawanna MU cars that, until five or six years ago at least, were in Hamburg, PA at the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society site. Cars 4351 and 4359 are (were?) standard high-roof trailers like so many others at other museums and tourist lines. As of 2013, though, it appears that both cars were taken off their trucks as shown in the above photo by Michael Huber. My guess is that they were stripped of parts and scrapped but I haven't been able to confirm this, so they've stayed on the PNAERC roster pending confirmation. Can anyone answer whether these two cars are indeed gone?
UPDATE: This mystery has been solved!

Branford rebuilding updates

The latest newsletter from Branford has arrived and, as usual, it has a trove of information on their massive years-long motor rebuilding project. This effort was begun not by choice but by necessity, following the flooding of the museum by two different hurricanes about a decade ago. The scope of work is remarkable: dozens of cars have had, or will have, their motors rebuilt and in many cases will also see significant mechanical and control system work. By the project's end, it will give Branford a collection of cars in better electrical and mechanical shape than any other trolley museum.

The latest car returned to operation with its motors rebuilt is Rhode Island Company 61, the attractive single-trucker shown above in a photo from Branford's website. Its record on the list has been suitably updated. The newsletter makes the point that car 61 is Branford's oldest electric streetcar that was built as an electric; Third Avenue Railway 220 is a year older but was built as a cable car.

Then there are the cars that are just entering the motor rebuild project. Lynchburg Railway 34, which was the first car ever acquired by Branford, has been jacked up and its motors removed for rebuilding. The same is true, though at the other end of the size spectrum, for Interborough Rapid Transit 3662. This is the only preserved deck-roof IRT car and one of only two preserved IRT Hi-V cars that were built with GE Type M control. It hasn't run in years so its return to operation should be pretty interesting.

The final category includes cars whose rebuilds are in progress. North Shore 709, the museum's representative Chicago area interurban car, has had its motors rebuilt and is awaiting their reinstallation. The same is true of Cincinnati & Lake Erie 116, which has been seeing quite a bit of interior restoration work. And control system overhaul on Brooklyn & Queens Transit 1001, the first production PCC car, has progressed enough to allow reassembly to begin. This car's motors have been rebuilt but its under-floor control equipment was also flooded and has needed significant work.

North Shore car removed from list

Thanks to Justin Birchfield, who posted the above photo (and a few others) online recently depicting the current sad status of Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee 154. This car is/was the oldest extant North Shore Line passenger car, part of the line's first order for steel cars placed in 1915 with Brill. It ran until the NSL was abandoned in 1963 and then spent about four years traveling around Indiana on railroad excursions organized by the Anderson Railroad Club. Around 1967 it went to the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington, where it was made operational and for roughly a decade saw regular use.

But ORM's fortunes began declining quickly after a membership schism in 1975 and car 154 was one of the victims. Its condition had deteriorated badly by the early 2000s and it was put up for sale by ORM in 2004. There were a few on-again, off-again deals to sell it but it wasn't until the Grass Lake Historical Society in Grass Lake, Michigan stepped in during 2016 that the car actually left Worthington. That year it was moved to Grass Lake, stripped for parts for Michigan Electric 29, and the body dumped on private property outside of town. In 2017 the GLHS transferred car 29, and presumably car 154 as well, to the Lost Railway Museum.

While car 154 has remained on PNAERC, at this point - given the time that has passed since it was parted out and the obviously quite thorough job that was done of stripping the car - it doesn't seem like the car stands any better chance of ultimate preservation than any other car body abandoned on private land. As such, I've decided to remove it from the PNAERC list.