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.
Frank, I am glad another Delaware car has turned up. My cousins live in Wilmington and they will be glad to hear about another piece of the cities history. Now the First State has more than one car in the list! Ted Miles who likes streetcars
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