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of a Lackawanna MU that I wasn't familiar with and that led down a rabbit hole that ended up with a trio of badly out-of-date PNAERC records being brought up to date.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