Atlanta Subway Car Preserved in... Kingston?

The Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston had posted an enigmatic message on their Facebook page a few days ago hinting at a mysterious new acquisition, and today the curtain was pulled back to reveal - Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority 510, the newest arrival at TMNY. The photo above, taken by Marc Glucksman of River Rail Photo, shows the car being switched into the museum by their Brill doodlebug.

MARTA 510 is identical to MARTA 509, which was donated to the Southeastern Railway Museum in November as described here, and is from the system's original order for subway cars. It's a single-unit car, so it's double-ended, and appears to be preserved in complete condition. Car 509 had been in storage since 2007, so the same may be the case with 510 but I don't know; either way, it looks very nice and may have been spruced up by MARTA shop forces, as was the case with 509 before it went to SERM.

MARTA 510 seems a bit out of place at TMNY. Although the museum is no stranger to rapid transit equipment (before 510's arrival, six of the organization's nine electric cars were from the New York area rapid transit network), this is the only piece in its collection that isn't from New York or a state adjoining it.* In fact, it may be only the second piece of equipment TMNY has ever owned that isn't from the region around New York (after North Shore 411, which the organization sold off way back in 1973). However, the car appears to be in good condition; has likely benefitted from the milder Georgia climate and (presumably) lower career mileage than most subway cars from closer cities; and is far more weather-resistant than the museum's older cars, making it a better candidate for outdoor storage and display. There's nothing wrong with seeing a second Atlanta rapid transit car preserved.

*Except for some foreign cars, admittedly

New Type of LRV Preserved

The Western Railway Museum is the proud new owner of a 1995-vintage Los Angeles light rail vehicle, class P2020 car 164, shown above in an image from the WRM Facebook page. It arrived late last week and they've already put power to it, though I'm not sure whether it's "motivating" yet.

This is the second car from the Los Angeles light rail system to be preserved at a railway museum; car 144 was acquired by Southern California Railway Museum, nee Orange Empire, in 2018. For five years now, car 144 has been the newest piece of equipment on the entire PNAERC list, but of course now it's been supplanted by car 164. WRM's new car is very similar to the type P865 car at SCRM, but the 1995 order from Nippon-Sharyo for these cars included some additional automated train operation functionality.

WRM is also keeping up a steady pace of acquisitions - since 2020 they've now added five cars to their collection, more than any other trolley museum during that period. They also now have the distinction of being the only museum with three different types of LRVs (Boeing-Vertol LRV, Siemens U2, and Nippon-Sharyo P2020), and the only museum with LRVs from three different cities (San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles).

Boston Snow Plow Scrapped

Many thanks to Jordan Helzer for confirming that Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority 5122, a snow plow converted from a Type 3 semi-convertible built in 1908, has been scrapped. As noted here, the car was preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum from 1995 to 2020 but that year it was sold (sans trucks, which were retained) to the Samuel Slater Experience in Webster, MA. This newly opened museum needed a streetcar for static display and 5122 was the first one chosen (the image above, showing the car being craned onto a truck for transport, is from Seashore's 2020 annual report).

Within months of acquiring the car, however, Samuel Slater Experience acquired a second car. This one, a heavily rebuilt Los Angeles Railway single-trucker, is far from local but was acquired in more-or-less complete condition and with an excellent cosmetic appearance. It has since been installed in the museum's building in Webster. I had tried reaching out to SSE to inquire about car 5122, with no luck, but Jordan has found that the plow's body has indeed been cut up. It has now been removed from the PNAERC roster.

This is not a huge loss. There are five other Type 3 cars still in existence, all of them at Seashore, including one or two that were much less heavily rebuilt than 5122 and at least one that in recent years has been kept in operational condition and used regularly as a switching locomotive.

Muni Double-Ender Update

Thanks to Olin Anderson for pointing out that Muni 1007 has finally entered service, some time after returning from a major rebuild at Brookville. (The above image is a frame from this video taken in late 2021 during testing.) The car now wears elaborate 1949-era Red Arrow colors rather than the simplified 1960s-era livery it formerly wore (visible on 1007's PNAERC page), which of course is a tremendous improvement. And with basically the same lines as actual Red Arrow 1949 "St. Louies," the car looks just right. Its status has been updated, and since it has presumably been rebuilt with Brookville standard PCC-type equipment, its former GE motor and control info has been removed.

Speaking of actual Red Arrow "St. Louies," the Market Street Railway blog post here sheds some light on the two cars of that series currently owned by Muni: Red Arrow cars 18 and 21. Both of these cars were owned by Branford from 1982 until 2017, at which time they were moved to Brookville, PA, where they remain in storage. The plan was to rebuild them - possibly with PCC trucks and equipment - as additional double-ended equipment for Muni service. However the blog post states that these plans will likely not happen because, due to differences in truck spacing compared with actual Muni PCCs, the two Red Arrow cars don't meet San Francisco clearance restrictions. There's no change to their PNAERC status, but it sounds very much like Muni may be looking to dispose of this pair at some point in the future.