Unique Trucks

This will likely only result in a minor edit to the PNAERC list, but it was too interesting (to a "parts guy" like myself) to pass up on. The North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society posted on Facebook a couple of days ago that they purchased a pair of trucks from the Connecticut Trolley Museum in a deal arranged with the help of Bill Wall. A photo is above, and you'll notice that these aren't just any old streetcar trucks.

From what I can tell, they're ACF Class C trucks, probably built around 1905 - and in all likelihood, this is the only surviving pair of this type. It's a pretty bizarre design, at least for this country, with the journal boxes set in castings that pivot off hubs near the truck bolster. Trucks with this feature were more common overseas (London County Council 1, just restored at Crich, has trucks with a similar layout) but were quite rare in the U.S. The closest thing I can think of is the Brill 95E truck designed for CSL 7001 (photos here), but that was a plate-frame design with inside journal boxes that today is extinct.

Anyway, where did these trucks come from and where are they going? They're off Springfield Terminal 8, a wooden cab-on-flat work motor that arrived at CTM in 1956 and was dismantled around 1983 after it became too badly deteriorated to save. And they're going to Trenton Street Railway 288. They're not strictly correct for that car - it had Brill 39E "Maximum Traction" trucks in service. But those trucks, or any MaxTrac trucks for that matter, are essentially impossible to find. And if finding a visually similar truck is no longer on the table, any kind of period-appropriate streetcar trucks should work. I think it's great that this unique and historically significant pair of trucks has a promising new home. Thanks to Bill Wall and Bill Hirsch for background info.

Lackawanna MU Corrections

I stumbled upon a photo of a Lackawanna MU that I wasn't familiar with and that led down a rabbit hole that ended up with a trio of badly out-of-date PNAERC records being brought up to date.

The above photo showed up on Facebook and piqued my interest. This was taken in Madison, Indiana - but what is it doing there, and why is a Lackawanna MU car numbered 105? Fortunately, thanks to Google and whoever put together this roster on the Altoona Works website, I have my answer. This is Erie-Lackawanna 3501, heretofore listed on the PNAERC list under Horseshoe Curve Chapter NRHS ownership. I didn't have any photos of it because I knew the three Horseshoe Curve Chapter-owned MU cars had been renumbered 103-105, but I didn't know in what order. The Altoona Works roster not only confirmed that 3501 became 105, but that it was bought by the Everett Railroad in 2018 and resold to its current owner in 2023. I've now updated the car to being owned by "Private owner - Madison."

The Altoona Works roster also told me that the car shown here, Lackawanna 2537, was lettered 105 during its NRHS days. That's kind of a moot point now, because the Everett Railroad - its current owner - has repainted it in proper Pullman green and given it back its original number. I've updated its owner from the NRHS chapter to the Everett Railroad.

The last of the NRHS trio is this car, Erie-Lackawanna 3533, which became NRHS car 104 and still (for the moment, at least) wears that number. It, too, is in service on the Everett Railroad, so I've corrected its PNAERC record accordingly. The Everett Railroad has now gone from having zero cars on the PNAERC list to having two. So, congratulations to them, I guess.

A Mystery in Chester - UPDATED

Many thanks to Joe Sharretts, who sent along the above photo taken this week in Chester, Pennsylvania. Joe was checking out the ruins of a church and, noticing this sitting behind it, astutely observed that it looked quite a bit like a streetcar. And sure enough, it is: a little digging revealed that the Chester Historic Preservation Committee claims a 1916 Brill streetcar among their holdings. CHPC is the owner of the church ruins, so I think it's safe to say that this is the car in question.

Unfortunately, "1916 Brill" doesn't narrow it down much - not without getting an actual view of the car body, anyway. Beyond the fact that it's about 40' long and is clearly an arch-roof car, there's not much to go on. I've reached out to CHPC but haven't received a response yet. Judging from Google Street View, this car has been at its current location for something like 10 years. Anyone know the history behind the car?

UPDATE: A huge thank you to Wesley Paulson, who with the help of Matt Nawn was able to track down some history on this car. As previously indicated, it was built in 1916 by Brill. The owner was the Wilmington & Philadelphia Traction, later Delaware Electric Power Co., the street railway system in Wilmington. W&PT also owned Southern Penn, which ran cars through Chester, though there's uncertainty as to whether this specific car ever ran in Chester.

Anyway, it was in W&PT's 301-331 series. There's a builder's photo here, a photo of a car in this series following modernization here, and a "late career" photo of one of these cars here. This car is pretty significant because the Wilmington system was exemplified by cars (like this) with absurdly low-hung platforms. This car, for example, doesn't seem to have had any steps - the platforms are so low to the ground, it looks like passengers just stepped right in. This gave Wilmington cars an unusual appearance at best, but as they got progressively more rebuilt, they also got significantly more homely. Anyway, the only other preserved Wilmington car is single-trucker 120, which is decidedly nonstandard for that system's fleet, making this newly discovered body unique in preservation. I've added this car to the PNAERC list, but I'm also leaving it as a "mystery car" until we can figure out its fleet number.

Whiskey Island Car Pusher Removed From List

I'm a little behind on this one, but I came across this post on Facebook from back in June that shows photos of the last two Hulett Ore Unloaders being scrapped at Whiskey Island in Cleveland. Cut up alongside were two 3'6"-gauge electric car pushers. The remains can be seen above, with one still relatively intact but the other reduced to pieces. I'm assuming both are long gone at this point. One, Pennsylvania Railroad 2, was on the PNAERC roster and has been removed. The other, which I believe may have been PRR 4, was never on the roster. As luck would have it, I never happened upon a fleet number for it until just now, when I was proceeding to remove it from my list!

Anyway, several other locomotives from Whiskey Island did escape into preservation. PRR 1 just left in May, escaping before the torches were lit, while PRR 3 escaped years ago and is now preserved near Youngstown. PRR 7 is also preserved in North East, PA.

The Fourth AEM-7

A brand-new preservation organization announced today that they've acquired Amtrak 927, an AEM-7 electric locomotive built in 1981 by Electro-Motive. This is the fourth AEM-7 to be preserved and the second example that was rebuilt by Amtrak with AC propulsion equipment and traction motors. Number 927 has obviously lost a few parts, but is assumed to be essentially complete, judging from the above photo from today's announcement. The locomotive has been sitting for quite a few years in the dead line, recently in Davisville, Rhode Island, and was supposedly next in line to meet the torch when its now-owners stepped in.

So, what is this organization? It's called Northeast Rail Heritage Inc., and depending on which of their pages you look at, they were founded in either 2023 or 2024 (they are described as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, so perhaps the group was created in 2023 and gained nonprofit status this year?). Their website is nicely done but limited in scope, and other than general information about the significance of  the AEM-7, it mostly consists of board member bios. Amtrak 927 is their first acquisition; since they don't seem to have a museum site at the moment, I've set their location in PNAERC as the location of their rolling stock collection: Davisville, RI.

As a point of obscure trivia, among mainline electric locomotives, the AEM-7 is now second only to the GG-1 in terms of how many have been preserved. It has passed up the S-motor, "Little Joe," and Ferrocarril Mexicano boxcab types, all of which can boast of three preserved examples apiece.

Linear Induction Motor Cars Preserved

A post on the Transit Toronto Facebook page here has revealed that two cars from Toronto's Scarborough RT rapid transit line, which closed in 2023, have found their way to the Halton County Radial Railway. The cars are TTC 3026 and TTC 3027, a married-pair set of "people mover"-type automated cars built in 1986 by UTDC. Not only were these cars built for automated, or driverless, operation, but they were built to use linear induction motors. As such, they don't have normal traction motors geared to the axles, but they still have electric motors that move them along the track. There's one other car of this general type (actually, a nearly identical car built by UTDC in 1982 for Vancouver) on the PNAERC list, described here when I added it to the list a year or so ago.

As for cars 3026 and 3027, they're standard gauge, which means they can't roll on Halton County's track. For the moment, they're stored on panel track in the maintenance building. Supposedly, one will be preserved and the other will be disposed of, though I'm not sure which. With these two cars added, Halton County's up to 56 cars listed on PNAERC, while the entire list stands at 2,089 cars.

I was able to find more information about these cars (albeit from Wikipedia) than I was on the Vancouver car that's on the list, but I could still use more information. Technical details are always appreciated.

Two More M&H Cars Heading to a New Home

More good news about cars at the Middletown & Hummelstown finding new homes: the Rockhill Trolley Museum has announced on their website that they are planning to acquire two of the more historic cars in the M&H collection.

The first, shown above in 2017, is Lewistown & Reedsville 23, a center-entrance interurban car built by Brill in 1914. This is probably the single rarest car in the M&H traction collection. It was built for Jersey Central Traction in Perth Amboy, NJ, making it the last surviving New Jersey interurban car, but only ran there a brief time before it was sold to the L&R. There, it operated until retirement in 1933. For nearly 70 years it was a cottage near Lewistown but it was moved in 2002 and sat outside for a decade or so (it's visible on Street View!). When its owner sold it around 2016, it was Wendell at the M&H who snagged it. The car has been stored inside since then and the body appears to be solid. The L&R was the second-closest traction line to Orbisonia/Rockhill Furnace, so RTM is a natural home and the car is about as local for them as they're going to find.

The second car, shown here, is York Railways 162. This is a curve-side suburban car built by Brill in 1924, one of a handful of curve-siders that company built before they were compelled by Cincinnati Car Company to quit doing that. Car 162 and its identical sister, car 163, were retired in 1939 and both were turned into summer cottages. Car 163 has been beautifully restored by RTM, but nevertheless the museum plans on preserving car 162. Their plan, however, is to preserve it as a cottage rather than restore it as a streetcar.

Kudos to RTM and the M&H for working to ensure a future for both of these rather historic pieces.

Muni PCC Available

The Fox River Trolley Museum announced today on Facebook that they are deaccessing two pieces of equipment and making them available to other museums. One of the two pieces is on the PNAERC list: San Francisco Municipal Railway 1030, a "Baby Ten" PCC built by St. Louis Car Company in 1951 as part of the last domestic order for PCC cars ever built. The car came to FRTM in 1983, after it was retired, and ran a few times but was quickly stored because its single-ended setup doesn't work well for the museum's operations. The car is complete, but its poor condition after four decades of outdoor storage may make it challenging to find a taker. It is one of nine cars of this series still in existence (not counting the infamous double-ended Franken-PCC). Of those nine, two have been fully restored: car 1016, beautifully restored to as-built condition at Rio Vista, and car 1040, fully restored to original livery but with some modern accoutrements to permit regular operation on home turf on Muni's F Line. The remaining six cars are all owned by Muni and are in storage; given that they recently scrapped an additional three of this type, it seems unlikely they'd want this one.

Though it's not on the PNAERC list, the other car deaccessed by FRTM is likely more historic than car 1030 by virtue of being unique. It's a flat car built for Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee piggyback service. There are three CNS&M piggyback flats still in existence, but this is the only one from the railroad's second order for longer 60' cars; the other two, one at the Illinois Railway Museum and one at the National Museum of Transportation, are both 40' cars.

An 80 for PTM

Following the recent post on the Middletown & Hummelstown, Scott Becker from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum sent some welcome news: car 83, shown here (all photos are courtesy Scott Becker), is going to PTM! The museum hopes to move the car by the end of the year and is currently fundraising for the acquisition here. Donations are cheerfully accepted!

From the photos Scott sent, the car appears to be remarkably solid given how many years it has sat outside. It has stayed tarped that entire time, though, and doesn't appear to have suffered from broken windows or other vandalism. This car is from the second order for 80-series cars placed by Red Arrow, so that will give PTM examples of both series: car 78 from the first order has been beautifully restored to as-built condition, complete with full-height end windows, and operates regularly as shown below. The museum also plans to restore car 83 to a later era as a contrast with car 78.

Thanks to Scott for sending this news!

A Visit to Middletown

Many thanks to Richard Schauer, who was in Middletown visiting the Middletown & Hummelstown this past week and sent along roster shots he snapped of almost the entire traction collection. The M&H has been in a period of transition following the death of owner Wendell Dillinger last year, but it seems that plans for at least a few pieces in the collection are starting to be established.

Let's start with the core of the traction collection, the cars stored inside the barn.

The first two photos show Red Arrow 77, a 1932 Brill suburban car. Many thanks to Bill Wall and Scott Becker, who wrote to point out that car 77 is the one inside the building and 83 is outside, rather than the other way around! I'll need to correct my photo assignments on the PNAERC roster. These "80-series" cars were generally known as Master Units but used the newer body style Brill adopted around this time; this look was also closer to what the Indianapolis Master Units used. This car is apparently under restoration; the railroad hopes to fix it up and use it on slow days instead of the diesel-hauled passenger train. Its condition has been updated.

Next is South Brooklyn Railway 9425, an open-platform freight motor built in 1903 just a quarter mile away at the Middletown Car Company. This car was acquired, due to its local connection of course, in 1992 from Branford.

The next two photos show Kansas City Public Service 2, a 1948 product of GE that is possibly the last "interurban-type" steeplecab ever built. It later went to the Hutchinson & Northern before being bought by Wendell, who had it stored at the Iowa Terminal for a number of years. This locomotive looks significantly better than the last time I saw it, and has been mostly stripped and primed.

York Railways 162, shown here, is the identical sister to York Railways 163, which was beautifully restored from roughly similar condition by the Rockhill Trolley Museum. These two cars comprise two-thirds of the extant York Railways cars. Car 162 is a body, but surprisingly little rust or significant body rot is evident in these photos. The car was built by Brill in 1924; after building these cars and a handful of other orders, including some cars for Zanesville, Ohio, Brill was sued by the Cincinnati Car Company and compelled to stop building curve-side cars.

This is Brooklyn Rapid Transit 4550, one of three semi-convertibles of this general type in existence. It was built by Laconia in 1906 in the same order as car 4573 at Branford, but this car is incomplete and suffered from years of outdoor storage before being cosmetically fixed up. This car is the second-most-recent addition to the M&H traction collection, having arrived in 2000 after a two-decade stint at Station Square in Pittsburgh.

And the most recent addition to the M&H traction fleet is Lewistown & Reedsville 23, an extremely historic center-entrance interurban car body built by Brill in 1914. I believe this is the last surviving interurban car from the state of New Jersey, though it only ran in the Garden State for a year or so before its original owner sold it to the L&R. As for that line, it has the distinction of being the second-closest electric railway to the present-day Rockhill Trolley Museum. Only the modest streetcar system in Huntingdon, PA, was closer.

And then there are two electric cars that aren't on the PNAERC list because they're not from North America. These are both 1909-vintage Rio de Janeiro open cars imported in the 1960s. The top one is an unrestored double-truck car numbered 1719; the lower one, 441, is a single-truck car that has been kept in operational condition for at least the last five decades. For years this car ran regularly at the RELIC Trolley Museum (aka the Railway Equipment Leasing & Investment Corporation) until Wendell moved it out to the M&H. It has run there a number of times using a towed generator. I believe this was one of just two single-truckers that arrived as part of the big Rio open car shipment; the other one was destroyed in a factory fire in Allentown, PA, not many years after arriving in the States.

Now that we've toured the barn, let's head outside!

This is the second 80-series Red Arrow car at the M&H, car 83. EDIT: I formerly had this listed as car 77; see note above under that car. Car 83 arrived at the M&H numbered 86; Bill Wall relates that near the end, SEPTA swapped the numbers of these two cars because it was an easier way to keep the better car in service and send the worse car to scrap. Richard was told that this car is to be scrapped for parts to keep other cars of this type in museums operational. EDIT: This is evidently untrue - this car is planned to go to a different museum for preservation. Thanks to Bill Wall for the correction! This series has fared well in preservation; including car 77, there are five others besides this one in museums, two of which have been fully restored and see regular use.

This is SEPTA 2095, a standard 1948 PCC from Philadelphia.

Next to it is SEPTA 2725, another typical Philadelphia PCC, this one built in 1947.

And further down on the same track is SEPTA 2104, built as part of the same order as 2095. The current plan, evidently, is to scrap one of these three cars and retain one or both of the other two for display. Which car will draw the short straw wasn't clear, and may not have been decided yet.

The other piece of Philadelphia street railway equipment on site is SEPTA C121, shown here, a big double-truck snow sweeper built by Brill in 1923. Not counting a couple of derelicts and an example that has been heavily modified, there are six sweepers of this type in preservation, two of which operate. I'm not really clear on this car's ownership history; according to my notes, it was bought by the M&H straight from SEPTA, but the timing seems a bit odd. Any information is appreciated.

SEPTA 476 is half of a married-pair set of "spam cans" built by St. Louis in 1951 for the Chicago Transit Authority. This car was originally CTA 6069 and it was sold in 1987 to SEPTA for use on the Norristown line, which was experiencing a severe car shortage due to accidents and equipment failures.

On the left is the mate to 476, SEPTA 477. This car was built as, surprise surprise, CTA 4070. To the right is another CTA alumnus, work motor S371. These two undoubtedly encountered each other many times between the 1950s and 1970s on the 'L' in Chicago.

Car S371 was built by Cincinnati in 1924 as 4397. It was rebuilt as a work motor in 1972, and in 1979 it was retired and sold to the Buckingham Valley Trolley Association, probably as a parts source. They sold it to the M&H around 1985. This car is to be scrapped in the near future.

The M&H is also home to a second CTA work motor, car S372, shown here. This car was built by Cincinnati as 4399, but the rest of its history is identical to S371. Like its compatriot, this car is to be scrapped in the near future; in fact, that work may be underway as I write this. Remarkably, for as many 4000-series CTA 'L' cars converted to S-series work motors as were originally saved, these two comprise fully half the extant examples. Once they're gone, only S373 at IRM and S374 at Northern Ohio - neither accessioned and both in poor condition - will remain of the 4000 work motor fleet.

While we're on the topic of cars to be scrapped imminently, this is Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority 3323, a double-ended PCC built by Pullman-Standard in 1945. It was originally Dallas Railway & Terminal 605 and was sold to Boston in 1958. It was stored at Branford from retirement in 1980 until 1992, when it came to the M&H as part of the same deal that saw the South Brooklyn freight motor transferred. This car is clearly in bad shape and was designated for disposal more than five years ago, so it's been on borrowed time for a while. The world's supply of ex-Dallas PCCs has been shrinking, and once this car and a similarly rough car in Windber are gone, the only one of the type located outside of Kennebunkport will be a single example at Warehouse Point.

Finally, there's the M&H fleet of high-roof Lackawanna MU trailers. Please contain your excitement.

M&H 343 is ex-Lackawanna 3343, the lace curtain car.

M&H 366 is ex-Lackawanna 4366.

M&H 302 is ex-Lackawanna 4302.

M&H 352 is ex-Lackawanna 4352.

And the cab car (I'm not sure whether it's the only functioning cab car and/or the only one fitted with ditch lights), M&H 329, is ex-Lackawanna 3329. What push-pull operation isn't enhanced by a plastic lobster to ride the head end of the shove?

Denver Peter Witt Saved

It's getting less common for the big trolley museums to add car bodies "found in the wild" to their collections, but smaller museums and individual collectors are picking up the slack. Earlier this week, an individual in Cheyenne, Wyoming, who operates a contract restoration business under the name High Plains Railroad Preservation, acquired and moved Denver Tramways 842. The car, shown above en route to its new home, is a single-ended Peter Witt built in the DT shops in 1924. As far as I can tell, after it was retired at the end of the streetcar era in Denver, it was made into a cabin near Fort Collins, Colorado. There it sat until this week. It's now the most modern of the nine streetcars from Denver on the PNAERC list, even though its construction appears to be entirely of wood with just steel sheathing - not exactly cutting-edge for 1924! It's clearly in rough shape, but HPRP has recently completed a stunning cosmetic restoration of Denver Tramways .04 - owned by the City of Arvada, but for the moment listed on PNAERC under HPRP because that's its physical location - so a bright future for car 842 isn't particularly unlikely. The PNAERC list now stands at a total of 2,087 cars.

Birney Goes on Display in Bellingham

I just happened upon this article in the Cascadia Daily News, from a couple of months ago, that details the placement of Tacoma Railway & Power 324 on display in Bellingham, Washington. The car is owned - and, now, is located adjacent to - the Helen Loggie Museum of Art in Bellingham, which is a fairly new organization housed in the city's historic Washington Territorial Courthouse building. Information on this car comes from Tom and Vince Mendenhall, who restored its body on behalf of the Loggie Museum as detailed here. The car has been placed under an attractive canopy that affords an unobstructed view from the street. Car 324's status has been updated to "displayed inoperable."

P.S. Anyone know what the significance of the "704" placard on the end of the car might be? It looks a bit like a New York subway car number board, but I'm mystified as to its role on this car.

Postcard from Tampa

Thanks to Bill Hirsch, who has sent along a couple of photos of Tampa Electric 402, the double-truck Birney located in Tampa, Florida.

I say "located" rather than "preserved" because, well, this poor car isn't quite as preserved as it used to be. Twenty years ago, it was a fairly typical streetcar body (photo) with an intact roof and at least some of its doors and windows. Today, not even both of its ends are intact, its roof is all but gone, and other than a coat of paint, its condition has clearly deteriorated in the last five years. Bill also spoke with the car's owner, who plans to further modify it as part of an art installation in the future. So, I haven't quite resigned myself to taking it off the PNAERC list yet, but something tells me it may just be a matter of time. Between the plight of car 402 and this recent event, it's a rough time to be a double-truck Birney.

Down Two Boeings

Word has arrived that the Chicago Transit Authority, which in 2015 set aside eight 2400-series 'L' cars built by Boeing-Vertol for their historic collection, has downsized a bit. Cars 2543 and 2544, shown above back in 2017, are being sent to scrap. This isn't too much of a loss; the CTA still has three pairs of these cars, all repainted in c1978 red/white/blue livery. They've even been slowly backdating 2455-2456 to original, or at least more original, condition, including conductor's positions. There's also a pair preserved at IRM and several pairs evidently still in work service on the CTA. The CTA heritage fleet, which for many years was frozen at only two 1920s 4000-series cars, now stands at 14 cars, including the two 4000s, four 1950s-era 6000s, two 1960s-era 2200s, and six 2400s.

Edison Car Under Restoration

From this post on the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum's Facebook page comes some good news: Lackawanna MU car 2628, shown above, is at the Morristown & Erie's shop complex in New Jersey and is currently being restored. Car 2628 is one of the Lackawanna's 1930 "Edison cars," so called because Thomas Edison ran the ceremonial first train. Many of these motor cars are still around, in various states of preservation, but not a single one has been truly restored to in-service condition. It appears that may be about to change, though understandably enough this won't be an operational restoration. The car's status on the PNAERC list has been changed to reflect the work being done on it.

Three of a Kind

Thanks to Jacob Wiczkowski for alerting me to this post from the Western Railway Museum a few days ago. Their third BART cars has arrived! Following the arrival of an "A2" car in August and a "B2" car in September, they've now acquired "C1" car number 329. This car has led a less eventful existence than the other two, never having been renumbered or rebuilt, and is the only one of the trio to retain its as-built DC motors. It was built by Alstom in 1987 as a flat-end motor car, a way for BART to adopt a fleet more adaptable to changing needs for train lengths when compared with the original fleet, which consisted entirely of blind motors and "end cars" that couldn't easily be run mid-train.

This likely completes BART's presence on the PNAERC roster, at least for a while. I don't believe the system has retained any of its own first-generation cars for historic purposes, and certainly none of the giant 5'6"-gauge cars have gone to any other museums. With this arrival, WRM has a total of 69 cars on the PNAERC list, with 2,088 cars on the list in all.