Portland Railway Light & Power 1067

Today we've got an update on Portland Railway Light & Power 1067 courtesy of Nick Christiansen, who is working on that car. PRL&P 1067 is a wooden interurban coach built in the company shops in 1906. It's a very historic car because it's the only surviving PRL&P interurban passenger car - and PRL&P isn't just another interurban, it has its origins in one of the very first "true" interurban lines built anywhere in the U.S., the line to Oregon City constructed in 1893.

Car 1067, shown in the two c1910 photos above (all photos copyright Nick Christiansen), is a pretty standard full-sized interurban car of a design typical of the Portland system. It ran until 1945 (later photo here), I believe, at which point it was turned into a cabin in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Above is a photo taken in 1980 of car 1067 and sister car 1065. The former was saved and moved to the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society site while the latter, which had been sitting on the ground was in much worse condition, was disassembled for parts.

In recent years car 1067 has been sitting on trucks in the OERHS barn but its stripped condition precluded much serious restoration work. Nick reports that this, however, has changed. The parts retrieved from Portland Traction 1058 have been allocated to help restore PRL&P 1067. This includes correct-type Brill 27E trucks, GE Type M control equipment, AMM schedule brakes, and other parts. The photos above show the current state of car 1067, with its east side in primer and its west side currently stripped and awaiting new windows. The car's interior is pretty well stripped, as is typically the case with cars saved as bodies.

And here's some what what will be going back on to car 1067. At top, an entire set of new windows has been fabricated for the car; then there's a smattering of components salvaged from PTCo 1058; and at bottom is a C6K controller that will go to car 1067. The PRL&P car's record has been updated in the PNAERC database to reflect the equipment assigned to it and the fact that it is undergoing restoration work. Many thanks to Nick for this update, and I look forward to hearing more about this project as it moves forward.

Hagerstown & Frederick car cosmetically restored

From Marc Glucksman and River Rail Photo (Facebook link but no account or log-in required) comes news that Hagerstown & Frederick 150, one of three surviving cars from that storied side-of-the-road interurban line, is undergoing a major cosmetic restoration. The plan for the car is that it will be placed on display inside of the new Myersville Library, located in a town along the old H&F.

Car 150, though not the "typical" H&F combine, does have a historically significant and varied history. It was built in 1918 by the Southern Car Company, making it one of only five Southern-built cars preserved. Originally it ran on Columbia Railway Gas & Electric in South Carolina (I think, though am not sure, that it was part of CRG&E's 100-116 series) so it's the only car from that system known to still exist. It went to the H&F in 1923 and ran there until 1954, after which its body was sold. Eventually it was picked up by Don Easterday, an H&F fan living in Myersville, who cosmetically restored the body and placed it on Bettendor freight car trucks. Following Don's death the car went to the city of Myersville and they are now putting what looks to be an impressive amount of work into the car to fix it up for public display. Photo above by Marc Glucksman.

The "decimal point" car

News comes from the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum that the last surviving "decimal point" car from the Denver & Intermountain, car .04, has been moved to Cheyenne for restoration. The car, shown above, was built in 1911 by Woeber Carriage and ran until it was retired in 1950. It was built as a standard-gauge car but was converted to 3'6" gauge, standard in Denver, in 1924. The restoration, said to be cosmetic only, is being done by High Plains Railroad Preservation.

Besides the car now being under restoration, its ownership has been clarified. While it's been stored outdoors in Arvada for some time, I thought it was owned by the Denver Rail Heritage Society. While that may have been true at one point (the car's preservation-era history is virtually unknown to me) the car is apparently now owned by the City of Arvada. So that correction has been made to its PNAERC record. Between trailer 610 in Aurora and now .04, Denver car bodies preserved in the area seem to be faring well these days.