Postcard from Myersville

Many thanks to Wesley Paulson, who sent along this illustrated report on Hagerstown & Frederick 150. Wesley writes:

I stopped in Myersville, MD, to see Hagerstown & Frederick 150.  

The car body is nicely displayed in its own room adjacent to the main reading room.  It is visible outside through large windows, reminiscent of SR 1401 at the Smithsonian. Visitors access the car by ramp or steps leading to the rear platform.  The installation uses the sprinkler pipe to simulate trolley poles. 

The folks in Myersville really seem like they outdid themselves; from what I can tell, the cosmetic restoration of car 150 was done very well and it's in a great location for viewing.

It's an attractive car, though not the "classic" H&F combine. But besides being the only preserved car from Columbia, SC, it's also one of only two double-truck streetcars built by Southern Car Company still in existence - and may soon be the only one.

Restoring seats down only one side of the car presumably has a couple of benefits for a display like this, including making it fully wheelchair-accessible.

The platform generally looks reasonable, at least to a layperson. It's nice that they've included what looks like an appropriate controller and brake valve.

It looks like most, maybe almost all, of this wood is original, but they did a nice job of fixing the car up.

Many thanks to Wesley for sending along these photos! It can be surprisingly difficult to find photos online of electric cars that are preserved in this fashion, i.e. single cars in out-of-the-way non-museum locations. When's the last time anyone snapped a photo of this thing, for example? So, if you've got a random streetcar near you that seems to be flying "under the radar," I'm always interested in updated pictures!