Tex-Mex Removals

Today's update comes with a southwestern flavor. First, I've removed Texas Electric freight trailer 608 from the PNAERC list. This 1921 homebuilt interurban freight trailer has been on display in the middle of Van Alstyne, Texas, since 1996. For most of that time, it's been plinthed near TE box motor 501 and the two cars have been mostly ignored, which in the arid Texas climate isn't as fatal as it would be many other places. Recently, car 608 got some attention, and as of August 2023 it looked like this:

I have no idea what those boxes over the ends are. Anyway, thanks to Phil Randall, who sent me this link to a Patreon page for car 608. It appears that the Northern Texas Traction Club was raising money to fix up car 608, but instead the city has mostly scrapped and rebuilt the car. As near as I can tell, the only original pieces left above floor level are some of the end and bulkhead framing and the car lines, which look like they were removed and then reattached atop a newly built steel-tube frame. The city also subtracted the baggage door from one side and added bus doors.

With almost nothing of the car's original fabric left, I don't consider it preserved. It's been removed from the list, following box motor 501, which was cut up last year. Thus ends the City of Van Alstyne's presence on the PNAERC list.

The second piece of equipment to be removed is (or, rather, was) a bit more impressive. Ferrocarril Mexicano 1012 was a 155-ton six-axle boxcab locomotive built by GE in 1923. Since sometime in the 1970s, I believe, it was plinthed alongside the railroad in Ciudad Mendoza, near Veracruz in Mexico. It's shown here in a Google Street View image from 2012.

More recent Street View images had shown that the locomotive had disappeared from this spot, though, as described last fall. Thanks to our official researcher, Wesley Paulson, who tracked down this YouTube video that was made 10 years ago. The caption information is in Spanish, which may be why I didn't find it, but it appears to show locomotive 1012 being hauled away in large chunks in April 2013. So, that's unfortunate. At least there are three other locomotives of this series still preserved, and none of those seem to be in any particular danger. With these removals, the PNAERC roster is currently at 2,096 pieces of equipment.

Texas Updates

Many thanks to Phil Randall, who writes with a couple of updates on preserved electric equipment in Texas. The first bit of news comes from Van Alstyne, a small city north of Dallas on the way to Denison. Until recently, Van Alstyne had a pair of Texas Electric freight car bodies on display on trucks, box motor 501 (pictured above) and freight trailer 608. The former car, box motor 501, has now been scrapped as part of a redevelopment of the park area by the city. The car was built by American for Southern Traction in 1913 and ran for ST, and later TE, until 1949. Some components were salvaged by a recently formed group called the Northern Texas Traction Club. Car 608 is still in Van Alstyne, and evidently there are plans to continue to display it, possibly with an interurban (passenger) car if they can get their hands on one.

The other bit of news doesn't directly affect the PNAERC list itself, but rather affects the "non-preserved list." The what now, you ask? Well, if you're viewing this page in desktop format (which you can also do on your phone using the link at the bottom of the page), one of the links at the bottom of the right column goes to a Google sheet with a list of electric cars that still exist but aren't what I'd consider "preserved" per se. This list was started a few years back by Lucas McKay, but I've since taken over maintaining it. Anyway, Phil reports that Dallas Birney 661, until recently sitting behind a house in Seagoville, TX, has been scrapped by the property owner.