As I've mentioned before, I don't always see news when it happens, even shortly after it happens, even if it's published online. Such is the case with the "news" from about a year ago that Fort Collins now has their second Birney, Fort Collins Municipal Railway 25, restored and running. The above photo (from a Facebook post dating to last September - no log-in required) shows both of the organization's cars in front of their barn. Longtime stalwart car 21, which has been running for some 35 years now, is on the right in its as-delivered livery. On the left, in later (though not quite end-of-service) silver and green, is newly-restored car 25.
Car 25 had quite the odyssey getting to this point. It was built in 1922 for Richmond, Virginia, and ran for Virginia Electric Power until it was sold to Fort Collins in 1945. It ran there for six years. For four decades, from retirement in 1951 until 1991, it was privately owned and apparently sat next to the depot in Victor, Colorado. The SCANA Corp, a power company in South Carolina, bought the car and had it restored by a company in Washington state. It was painted in South Carolina Public Service colors but it doesn't seem that SCANA had much of a use for it and in 1999 it was conveyed to the Charlotte Trolley group. They couldn't really use it either, and in 2008 sold it to the group in Fort Collins. It has undergone a years-long restoration effort and will now be back in service on home rails. Its status has been updated from "undergoing restoration" to "operated often."
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