San Diego update

The Times of San Diego has posted in an article here that the city's first light rail car, U2 1001, has been put into regular historic service on the "Silver Line" downtown route. There it will join a pair of heavily rebuilt PCC cars, currently numbered 529 and 530, in heritage service. It seems to me that anyone showing up to ride on a PCC would be a bit disappointed to have a light rail set pull up, but I suppose that it's all relative and even the seemingly modern U2 cars are already historic. They're no more rare than PCC cars though: besides a number of U2 cars from San Diego that were resold for continued service in South America, a total of seven have been preserved in this country - just as many as there are Boeing-Vertol LRV's still extant.

Speaking of the San Diego heritage operation, I'm looking for updated information on the San Diego fleet. Besides the U2 and the two PCC cars in service, last I knew a third PCC - ex-Philadelphia car 531 - was undergoing rebuild to join them. However I don't know whether that is still an active project or whether the car has been mothballed. There's also ex-Philadelphia 533, apparently in storage, and Muni 1123, last seen being cannibalized for parts. Finally there's Newark 16, which is still stored in western New York; I believe this car was intended for San Diego at one point but I don't know who owns it currently. Clarification would be appreciated.

Updates from IRM

From our sister blog, Hicks Car Works, have over recent months come several changes to the status of equipment in the IRM collection. First, the good news: Chicago & West Towns 141, shown above, has had most of its teething issues worked out and has been put into regular service. This was the first real "chicken coop" restoration done by IRM and following completion of major work in 2013 the car stayed in only occasional use for several years while the bugs were worked out.

There's also Fox River Electric 306, which was IRM's example of that trolley museum staple, the project abandoned mid-restoration. This suburban car was acquired by IRM in the mid-1980s in seriously deteriorated, albeit complete and operational, condition and was torn down for a complete rebuild. That effort ground to a halt around 1990 or so but has recently been resumed, with welding work and component reassembly efforts now underway.

Additionally, Amtrak 945, the museum's AEM7 passenger locomotive and one of the newer pieces of equipment at IRM, has been moved out of the shop and put on outdoor public display. This follows welding work necessitated by the replacement of some windows that were broken by vandals during transportation from the east coast.

Then there's the bad news. Chicago Aurora & Elgin 308 is out-of-service for the foreseeable future following a motor failure. This isn't the first time IRM has had a GE 66 blow up but it is expected to take some time before funds can be raised to rebuild the motor for continued service. In the meantime the museum has three other CA&E wood cars that will remain in regular service.

Finally, Wisconsin Electric Power L7 is also out-of-service with a failed air compressor. On most pieces of equipment this wouldn't be too catastrophic, but the L7 is one of only two pieces of equipment on the PNAERC list to sport a giant CP-19 air compressor. It sits in the cab and removing it for work is an involved process, so for the moment repair work is on the back burner.

Last Wilkes-Barre streetcar salvaged

News comes via WNEP-TV that the body of the last streetcar from Wilkes-Barre Railways, car 790, has been retrieved from its longtime home inside of a house in Dallas, PA. The car has been acquired by a recently-formed group called Anthracite Trolleys Inc which has moved the car to a warehouse in nearby Swoyersville for storage. The stated intention of ATI is to restore the car to operating condition and donate it to the Electric City Trolley Museum in nearby Scranton, which seems a laudably selfless goal.

WPR 790 has now been added to the PNAERC list. It was earmarked for preservation last year but typically I make changes to the list based on the physical location of the car rather than its ownership on paper. This car is pretty historic, not only because it's the last car from Wilkes-Barre but also because it's the last surviving car from the Eastern Pennsylvania Railway (aka East Penn Railway) which ran cars in Pottsville and Mauch Chunk until 1932 and owned car 790 before WPR did. The car's design strongly resembles Boston Type 5 cars, which were also built for Reading, though without the angular ends seen in Boston. Photos show that the car will need some significant rebuilding, including closing up of at least one door cut into its side, but as car bodies go it isn't unusually incomplete and it even retains a fair bit of WPR paint.