According to a couple of newspaper stories (here and here - the above photo is from the latter), the streetcar shown here was moved this week from its former home ensconced in a hunting club's building and has been set aside for preservation. The trouble is, I know basically nothing at all about the car.
It's from Vicksburg, Mississippi, which makes it the only electric car from that city in preservation. Judging from its appearance it was built either for Vicksburg Light & Traction, which ran the city's streetcars until 1923, or for Mississippi Power & Light, which ran them from 1923 until abandonment in 1939. But not only do I not know what the car's number is, I also don't know who built it or when. I'd say that it's got to be a single-trucker and to me it looks like a car built late-teens/early-1920s but it's not a Birney, suggesting that maybe it wasn't built by one of the Birney builders (American/Brill, St Louis, Cincinnati). Harold Cox's order list for American includes four Birneys bought secondhand by Vicksburg and hilariously numbered 145-175 by tens, but this isn't one of those.
So I need some help. I'd like to add the car to the PNAERC list but I need at least some information on it. For the time being it's evidently been moved to an old car dealership in Vicksburg on Washington Street just south of Belmont, still owned by the Long Lake Hunting Club. Time will tell what will be done with this car.
EDIT: After consulting Alan Lind's book "From Horsecars to Streamliners" it appears that Vicksburg was a repeat St Louis Car Company customer. They ordered five cars, one of which might be this one: two cars in 1913 (numbered 75 and 105), two in 1914 (numbered 115 and 125), and one in 1916 (numbered 135). All are noted as single-truck cars with 21' bodies. If the mystery car is one of these five then that would explain why it's got a Birney arrangement but isn't a Birney, as these would have just predated that design.
Is this a Brill nearside? Hagerstown & Fredrick had a few of these. H&F 62 survived as a body into the 1980s
ReplyDeleteGood question. It’s hard to tell from the photos but I think it’s arranged like a standard safety car, double ended and with doors at two corners.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is arranged like a standard safety car, double ended and with doors at two corners.
DeleteThis streetcar was owned by my family (Dorothy Walter Copes.) It was donated to the city so that it could be preserved so others could enjoy it as well. The streetcar itself served as the kitchen and dining area. A lot of memories were made sitting at the table that once inhabited the middle section of that streetcar.
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