News from the East Coast

First, it was a triumphant day at Branford, as its just-received New Jersey car, Public Service 2651, made a semi-surprise operating debut for museum members. Thanks to River Rail Photo for the above image and thanks to Bill Wall for the below movie showing the car traveling down the line.

This was the first time in 80 years that this car has moved any appreciable distance under power. One of the motormen was Tony Hall, who was one of the men who saved car 2651 back in 1973 when it was a shed in Long Valley, NJ. The car is still undergoing some restoration work, but its return to operation is welcome news to Garden State traction fans.

Another ceremonial unveiling occurred in Hampton, Virginia, where the nine-year restoration of Newport News & Hampton Railway Gas & Electric 390 was celebrated as complete. This car was acquired as a body from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum in 2017 and has been the subject of a thorough restoration, including complete fabrication of one platform that was missing. The end result is stunning, not least thanks to the flashy and attractive paint job. The car isn't on trucks but I believe trucks are on hand. My impression is that a permanent display location hasn't yet been found. As such, the car's condition has been updated from "under restoration" to "stored inoperable," but one of these days that will surely tick over to "displayed inoperable." Kudos to everyone with the Hampton 390 project.

The third news item doesn't involve a restoration, but rather a deaccession. The Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston posted on their Facebook page that they have deaccessioned Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit 1602A and made it available to other organizations. As can be seen above, it's in rough shape. It's also a bit of an orphan due to its design. Built as an open-platform, wood-bodied gate car in 1907 by Jewett, it was rebuilt as a "Q" car around 1940 by the BMT. The "Q" cars were actually three-car sets made up of two motor cars sandwiching a trailer. The BMT enclosed the ends and added two sliding doors on each side of each car, located over the trucks. In this configuration, the "Q" cars ran first on the Third Avenue Elevated and then, following a rebuild around 1957, on the Myrtle Avenue line. They ran until 1969, astonishingly late for wood cars. Car 1602A seems to have sat around the New York subway system for about a decade before going to TMNY in 1980. It's one of just two "Q" cars preserved in rebuilt form, with the other in good shape at the New York Transit Museum. Though complete, 1602A's condition - not to mention the fact that it's a single car from a three-car set - mean it may be a challenge for another trolley museum to justify acquiring it.

TMNY has also reposted their Boston PCC, MBTA 3204, highlighting that it is still available to other organizations as well. This is one of only two all-electric PCCs from Boston preserved (the other, 3221, is under a tarp at Seashore), making it an unusual specimen. This series shared an unusual monitor-roof design with the PCCs built around the same time for Cleveland, though the Boston cars had left-hand doors that the Cleveland cars lacked. Thanks to Jordan Helzer for the heads-up on the TMNY cars.

And finally, a Facebook post by a painting contractor in Scranton, Pennsylvania, reports that Philadelphia Transportation Company 2054, the last surviving air-electric PCC from Philadelphia, has been moved from Electric City Trolley Museum property to the contractor's site for cosmetic restoration. This car's historical significance is clear, but after it was repainted in as-delivered colors by SEPTA and used for a time in fan-trip service, it spent the 1990s slowly deteriorating in outdoor storage.