Many thanks to Matt Nawn of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, who has sent along this update and photos detailing the restoration of Public Service Coordinated Transport 26. -Frank
Car 26 in service in 1970 - Matt Nawn Collection
The Restoration of PSCT #26
The Baltimore Streetcar Museum acquired former PSCT/TNJ/NJ Transit PCC Car #26 in February 2014 as part of the effort led by Bill Wall to find homes for the remaining PCC cars which had been stored for many years following their retirement from the Newark City Subway in August 2001. The rationale for BSM acquiring #26 was to provide an additional car to serve the function largely provided by BSM's former SEPTA PCC Car #2168; namely, to provide a vehicle that was solid, reliable, easy to operate and easy to maintain that could handle a significant part of the day to day public operations at the museum, thus helping to conserve the older cars in the museum collection, a number of which are over 100 years old. SEPTA #2168 has been a great success for the museum, in both filling the role of day to day operations (pre-pandemic) and in bringing in a number of new volunteers and donors. Due to its wide carbody width, Car #26 also is an ideal vehicle to utilize with a platform mounted wheelchair lift to ensure all visitors can enjoy a vintage streetcar ride.
From 2014 until 2018, work progressed, slowly at first, to return the car to operation after many years of storage. Thankfully, significant portions of the control wiring in Car #26 were replaced during its last decade of service, making restoration to operation quite feasible. In order to make the car operable on BSM's wide gauge trackage, a set of SEPTA broad gauge trucks were obtained and regauged by museum volunteers from SEPTA's Philadelphia track gauge to Baltimore's even wider track gauge. (In fact, two sets of former SEPTA trucks were on hand; one set to test the car with and a second set which was previously overhauled for use when the car is released for public operation). The former SEPTA trucks utilized Westinghouse shaft brake actuators, and in order to use these components with the car's General Electric control system (and make the car as electrically identical to former SEPTA #2168 as possible), substantial work was performed to modify the car's control system, including replacement of a number of components and significant wiring changes. The conversion work was substantially completed and successfully tested during a special event in November 2018.
Successful test run at BSM, November 2018. Bill Monaghan Photo.
While the electrical work was progressing, fundraising began in earnest for a carbody restoration. To date, substantial funds have been received from museum benefactors, two local NRHS chapters, as well as grants from the 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation and the National Railway Historical Society's Heritage Grants program. The project team developed a set specifications for an outside contractor to perform the carbody restoration and repainting, and the contract was awarded to Rail Mechanical Services, Inc. of Columbia, PA with work commencing in January 2019 following highway transport of the car from Baltimore to Columbia.
Media blasting car 26. Harry Donahue Photo.
The use of an outside contractor like RMS enabled a comprehensive restoration of the carbody, including repairs to the roof, ends, and lower carbody. The extent of the work has included removal of the lower carbody "rub rail" for effective rust removal and fabrication and installation of new steel in any areas where deterioration was found. A master carpenter hired directly by BSM fabricated new doors to original plans (provided by Minnesota Streetcar Museum) as well as new roofwalks and cleats. Approximately nine layers of paint was removed from the carbody, including the original Twin City Lines yellow and cream paint, indicating this was the first time the carbody had been stripped to bare steel since the car was constructed. The BSM project team overseeing the work involves many of the same people who managed the restoration work on SEPTA #2168, PTC #2743 (at Rockhill Trolley Museum), and the more limited restoration of sister car PSCT #6 (also at Rockhill), so the lessons learned from these projects can be applied to #26.
Michael Lawson with a restored farebox for car 26. Matt Nawn Photo.
Based upon the strong financial support of the project, the restoration scope was expanded to include the interior. This was a fortuitous change, as disassembly and restoration of the interior enabled repairs to structural areas of the car that would otherwise have been difficult to access, as well repairs to the floor and replacement of the deteriorating auxiliary heaters. The restoration scope included structural repairs to all of the seat frames, reupholstering of all seats (by a different vendor) with material matching what the car used prior to 1985, and replacement of all Lexan windows and restoration of the window frames (performed by a different contractor and museum volunteers). All standee windows are being replaced with new seals and safety glass, with the glass tinted to match the green color used in both the Twin Cities as well as for many years in Newark.
Rear corner and seat frame repairs
The restored car will represent its circa 1964 appearance when completed, complete with PSCT gray, blue, and off-white exterior colors; white fleet numerals, golden glow headlight, and period appropriate details and fittings. The reasons for this era are two-fold; a 1964 appearance represents what public transit looked like shortly after Baltimore retired its last streetcars in late 1963, and it also makes the restored car slightly different in appearance from restored sister car #6 at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. In order to present the car in authentic appearance to the maximum extent possible, museum volunteers have found and/or restored many items from this era including the correct style farebox, fare register, Public Service "TAKE ONE" boxes, builder's plate, period and location appropriate interior advertisements, along with the previously mentioned interior upholstery, replacement golden glow headlight, correct color standee windows, and carefully matched interior and exterior colors. Additionally, the car's roof light has been removed, rock guard over the windshield removed, an original set of windshield frames has been restored, and the roof vent will be reinstalled over the front section of the roof (which had been removed when the pantograph frame was mounted on the car, itself since removed).
Repairs to the door side of the car
Repairs to the front corner of the car
The car is slated to return to BSM early in 2021 where additional electrical work, a truck swap, and final detail work not included in the restoration contract will be completed. Barring any substantial delays due to COVID-19, a completion ceremony is planned for August 2021 to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the car's retirement from regular service.
Along with museum benefactors and organizations providing financial support, the restoration of PSCT #26 has been fortunate to have the support of other organizations, particularly Bill Wall from Branford Electric Railway Association and the Minneapolis Streetcar Museum, as well as the retired shop foreman from the Newark City Subway. The PSCT #26 team at Baltimore Streetcar Museum greatly appreciates the support received to date and looks forward to the future!
Exterior of car 26 as of November 2020
More information on the project can be found on YouTube here.
Great work, documenting the joint efforts of so many skilled volunteers and vendors to restore this gem of a PCC for Museum Service. Thank you, Matt Nawn for your skills mechanical and as a premier wordsmith.
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