Syracuse Lake Shore & Northern 200 Update

Many thanks to Thomas Mafrici, who has sent along an update of the progress on Syracuse Lake Shore & Northern 200, which he owns. The rebuilding of this car, which he acquired as a true cadaver, is one of the most impressive traction restoration projects underway right now, and it's fascinating to see the progress on this virtually frame-up rebuild of a classic 1906 Cincinnati-built wooden interurban.

A lot of progress has clearly been made on the roof framing since the last update in early 2023. 

The first two photos are of the "good side" of the car, in terms of condition, and show all the work that has gone into recreating the ends of the car, both of which were essentially gone.

Thomas reports that he's just finished framing out the "bad side" of the car, shown here. 

The new posts and roof carlines look beautiful.

Finally, a photo taken of the car's interior showing all the new wood in the roof.

EDIT: Thomas sent along a few more progress photos, shown below - enjoy!

The Kerwin Rail Grinder

I was looking up something in a 1911 Electric Railway Journal available on the Smithsonian website and started idly perusing the publication, as you do. I happened upon this article, which caught my eye immediately.

That looks familiar, I thought. And sure enough, I was right. It's an unmistakable match for Servicio de Transportes Electricos del Distrito Federal 100, a rail grinder preserved at the transit agency's museum in Mexico City.

I don't have much info on SDTE 100, and in fact it has heretofore been listed as being a 1900 product of Brill. But, of course, I couldn't find anything about it in the Brill order books, and now I know why. I've updated its builder to the Kerwin Machine Company and removed the year built; I'd guess it's likely around 1910 but can't be sure. The rail grinder in Mexico City has been modified somewhat - it's lost the "skate" hanging off the rear and has had a small platform built onto the front with a dash panel and possibly a controller - but it's got to be a Kerwin. (Given that Kerwin was based in Detroit; that city was using these grinders as of 1911; and Mexico City bought a bunch of Detroit PCCs in the 1950s, it's tempting to wonder whether this critter ran in Detroit and came to Mexico City secondhand. But there's no evidence for that, and rail grinders of this description don't appear at all in my CERA book on Detroit Street Railway.)

SDTE 100 is unassuming but is pretty unusual, actually. First, it's one of only two cars on the list with an "A1" wheel arrangement, designating four wheels and a single motor (the other is the homebuilt Ponemah Mills line car at the Connecticut Trolley Museum). It's also the only thing on the list built by Kerwin. More importantly, it's one of only 12 electric railway rail grinders preserved, and one of only five built for that purpose (the other seven were rebuilt from older streetcars). Of those five, two (one each at the National Museum of Transport and Southern California Railway Museum) sport more typical "house" construction. That leaves only this and two similarly diminutive (and skeletal) grinders built by the Goldschmidt Thermit Company, both preserved at Seashore.

If You Knew What the New MU Knew

Many thanks to Tom Morrow, who sent along some photos taken back in the 1980s that have allowed me to add two more cars to the PNAERC list.

These photos were taken by the late Harvey Hylton in the mid- or late-1980s at a tourist railroad then known as the Indiana & Ohio, today the Lebanon Mason & Monroe, in southern Ohio. The LM&M has, for many years, owned a quartet of ex-Lackawanna MU motor cars. They've numbered the cars 101-104 but until now I only knew the original number of one other, 4615, so that was the only car included on PNAERC. But now, thanks to Harvey and Tom, I can add two more! MU motor cars 3514 and 4634 are now on the list, meaning I'm only "missing" one of the LM&M cars. Any information on that fourth car - and, crucially, any information that might indicate which Lackawanna cars were renumbered to which LM&M cars - would be greatly appreciated.

Car Pushers Threatened

A Facebook post here by a page called Drone Ohio made earlier this week states that a scrapping company has been hired to cut up the last two Hulett Ore Unloaders, which have been sitting disassembled on Whiskey Island in Cleveland for many years. Of far less historical significance, but of more relevance to this particular page, are the three narrow-gauge electric-powered car pushers shown above, which have long sat in the shadow of the giant Huletts. The photo above is from Drone Ohio.

The three car pushers are 3'6" gauge and two, PRR 1 and PRR 2, are already on the PNAERC list. The third is on my "mystery equipment" list because I've never been able to find a fleet number, builder, or date for it. Anyone know?

Regardless, these car pushers (also known as "mules" and probably other nicknames) worked the PRR docks here at Whiskey Island for many years and were retired in the 1980s or very early 1990s. I think it's safe to assume that if the Huletts get hauled off in scrap dumpsters, this trio will go with them.

While I was looking at car pushers on the PNAERC list, I also reviewed the other four. I believe there are six of these things on the list - five narrow-gauge PRR examples and this thing, which is standard gauge, has an MCB coupler on the back, and wears a pantograph. But of the three PRR ones extant outside of Whiskey Island, I did make a change to PRR 7 at the Lake Shore Railway Museum. The LSRM website lists this locomotive as "most likely" built around 1910 by Atlas. But it's virtually identical to the other Baldwin/Westinghouse-built car pushers, and those unusual over-the-journal-box equalizer bars were used on Baldwin streetcar trucks in the 1900s and 1910s too, so I've changed this one to list B/W as the builder instead of Atlas. Does anyone have an actual roster of these things?