Find Me in the Clube

Thanks to Wesley Paulson, our official researcher, and an unnamed volunteer with the Santos Railway Museum in Brazil, who wrote to correct an error of omission on the PNAERC list. Last summer, I removed Companhia Municipal de Transportes Coletivos 1791 from the list because I hadn't been able to find any recent confirmation that it still existed - but fortunately, it appears I was wrong. The car does still exist, and we may even receive recently taken photos of it - stay tuned.

Car 1791 is a "Huffliner," built in the Third Avenue Railway System shops in 1938 as a double-ended "Peter Witt" car. This particular car was TARS 582 until it was sold to the Sao Paulo system in Brazil in 1947. It ran until 1967 and was then retired to the Clube Esportivo Nautico de Guarapiranga in Sao Paolo. As it turns out, the car is still there it just doesn't seem to be the subject of much photography (and it may be off exhibit, I'm not certain). But it's been added back to the PNAERC list, bringing the overall list to 2,090 cars.

PCC for Sale?

An intriguing post showed up a couple of days ago on the Facebook page for Aumann Vintage Power, which I'll confess I'd never heard of before. They are evidently auctioning off a huge collection of tractors, trucks, and other miscellaneous equipment (including the school bus involved in the Chowchilla kidnapping, of all things) sometime this summer. Why is this of interest? Because what's being auctioned off is (apparently) the entire collection of Bright's Pioneer Exhibit in Merced, California - and Bright's appears on the PNAERC roster! Tucked way back among all the random machinery is the ex-St. Louis Public Service, ex-Muni PCC pictured above in a photo taken in 2011. The car is Muni 1150, which was built in 1946 as St. Louis Public Service 1140 and ended its service career in 1979, from what I can tell. According to one source familiar with the Muni fleet, the car was taken out of service and moved to Merced right away, likely being put into indoor storage as soon as it got there. As such, it's probably in better shape than just about any other ex-SLPS Muni car out there except for the two or three that have been fully restored.

Now, I have to admit, the PCC doesn't appear in any of the photos on the Facebook post, so I can't be certain it's included in the auction. But it seems likely. Aumann says they will add a full listing to their website soon, so that should answer any questions. If car 1150 goes up for auction, hopefully it finds a good home.

On a totally unrelated subject, I've removed the above car, Companhia Municipal de Transportes Coletivos 1791, from the PNAERC roster. It's an ex-Third Avenue Railway System "Huffliner" built by TARS in 1938 and sold to the Sao Paolo, Brazil, system in 1947. Until sometime in the last couple of decades it was on display under a shelter at the Clube Esportivo Nautico de Guarapiranga, located near Sao Paolo, but I cannot find any evidence that it's still there despite the club being very well documented in online photographs. Until I can find some evidence that the car still exists, it's off the list. EDIT: There's an update to this story!