Hudson Valley Railway car added to list

The photo above is from the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum in Plattsburgh, New York, and, sure enough, it shows an electric car masquerading as a diner. For a while I've had this car on my "possible" list, in the category of cars that I know exist but that I don't have solid information on. But this past week I was able to pick up a book by David Nestle on the Hudson Valley Railway (shameless plug - from here) and that has allowed me to fill in just enough gaps that I'm comfortable adding the car to the PNAERC list.

So this Hudson Valley Railway car is now on the roster. Unfortunately it's got several qualities that make it something of a marginal addition. First, I don't know its fleet number; second, it's not only an incomplete body but it's also missing its ends; and third, it's preserved as a diner rather than as an electric car. But none of these is a deal-killer by itself. There are other cars on the list whose numbers are unknown. For the most part, as long as I know what series or order a car is from, I'll include it. As for how incomplete the car is, there are also other examples of cars similarly "reduced" in form. But the fact that they're preserved in a museum makes a big difference. And finally, it's not the only electric preserved as a non-electric - the diner in Tupelo and the house in Fort Smith are a couple of similar examples. Again, the key here is that the car is preserved in a museum, as I wouldn't normally include a house or a diner "in the wild."

This is, to be sure, an historically significant car, modified as it is. It's the only survivor, I believe, of the various streetcar and interurban lines that once ran through the upper Hudson Valley. Nothing from the Albany or Schenectady city systems has survived, nor has anything from the Albany-Hudson interurban line. This is also a very early example of an interurban car, dating to 1901, and is one of just eight preserved cars (and the only interurban) built by local Troy, New York car builder J.M. Jones & Sons. The car's number can be narrowed down to six candidates; part of the 21-29 series on HVR, it's known not to be 21, 24, or 26 (rebuilt, rebuilt, and burned, respectively). Perhaps someday its fleet number will come to light.