Savannah Birneys surface

Thanks to my father for forwarding this article about two Savannah, Georgia, Birney bodies that have surfaced. The cars were built into a house in Isle of Hope, just south of Savannah, and were discovered when the house was being torn down.

The Savannah system was almost entirely Birneys in later years, I believe. They had 30 Birneys built by St. Louis in 1922 and another eight built by American the following year. A number of the cars were resold as bodies upon retirement in 1946. These two cars look pretty rough, probably in worse shape than the two American-built cars preserved at the Savannah Roundhouse Museum. There's also a Savannah Birney buried in a seaside cabin on Tybee Island and possibly at least one other body preserved elsewhere.

The Isle of Hope Historical Association is currently fundraising to preserve these cars, though how exactly isn't entirely clear, nor is it clear when they stand to be removed from the site of the house (or whether they've already been removed). With so much unknown about these cars, and with preservation far from certain, I haven't added them to the PNAERC list - yet. I did add them on my "non-preserved list" (one of the links on the right side of this page if you're viewing in desktop mode). We'll try and stay tuned and see what happens.

North Texas Historic Transportation confirmed to be defunct

Many thanks to Andy Nold for confirming that the North Texas Historic Transportation group, which I believe had been functionally inoperative for some time, is officially defunct.

Until now, six cars had been listed as owned by NTHT, though the organization does not seem to have owned any of its own property, meaning the six cars were all scattered around the greater Fort Worth area on various other people's properties. Two of the six cars, Tandy Subway 1 and 4, have been scrapped. These two squared-off body rebuilt PCC cars had been stored in a parking lot in Fort Worth and had been offered for sale (see here), but found no takers and have now been cut up. Intriguingly, there may only be one "Winnebago" Tandy car left, the car McKinney Avenue owns and now has stored out of service. Two others, numbers 3 and 6, are on the PNAERC roster as being stored in Brookville, PA, but these may have been scrapped for parts already - I haven't been able to get confirmation one way or another.

The other four cars that were owned by NTHT are all ex-Northern Texas Traction car bodies which, evidently, still exist, and have presumably not been moved from their respective storage locations. There are two streetcars in Azle, Texas, northwest of Fort Worth; a freight motor in Benbrook, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth; and a double-truck Birney on private property within the city of Fort Worth. The PNAERC list has been updated to remove the two scrapped Tandy cars and to list the ex-NTT cars as being under private ownership in their respective locations. Any further information on the condition of these cars, or plans for their future, is always appreciated.

Corrections on Lackawanna 2628

Many thanks to Mike Del Vecchio, who contacted me to set the record straight regarding Lackawanna 2628. This 1930 MU motor car was moved from its home of some 35 years near Rochester, New York, back to home territory in New Jersey back in April as described in this post. At the time, I posted that the car was owned by the Tri-State Railway Historical Society and stored at the Whippany Railway Museum. 

However Mike points out that, in fact, neither of those things are true! The car is actually owned by a real estate developer in Montclair, NJ, called BDP Holdings LLC. This firm evidently owns (or is invested in) the former Lackawanna terminal building in Montclair, which is where 2628 will be put on display as part of a major redevelopment. TSRHS helped set up this whole plan, but does not own the car. Additionally, while 2628 was unloaded at Whippany, it's actually being stored on the Morristown & Erie Railway, whose tracks run past the Whippany museum. The car's PNAERC record has been updated to reflect these corrections. Thanks, Mike!

Muni rail grinder operates

Per this post on Facebook (no log-in required), the Western Railway Museum has returned its Muni rail grinder, SFMR 0109, to operational condition following a 30-year period out of service. The car's PNAERC record has been appropriately updated.

I'm not personally very familiar with 0109, but it's certainly a unique piece. It's one of only three surviving ex-Market Street Railway work cars. It's also one of only a dozen preserved rail grinders on the PNAERC list, and may (now) be the only operational rail grinder in a U.S. trolley museum.