Streetcars on the Move

It's not every day an old streetcar moves from one museum to another. And it's definitely not every day that two streetcars move from one museum to another in totally unrelated moves. But, that day was today!

First up, New Orleans Public Service 966 has ended a 21-year stint on loan from its owner, the Seashore Trolley Museum, to the Lowell Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts. Today it was transported back to Maine and unloaded at Seashore. The above photo is pretty impressive: the Silk Road truck carrying 966 threads its way between the Seashore visitor center and Tower C, complete with a ConnCo open car and even a rainbow visible in the background. Car 966 is believed to be operational, so it will be a welcome addition in Kennebunkport, where the regular operating fleet stands at just three cars thanks to motor failures and various other mechanical issues. Until now it was the only car on the PNAERC list in Lowell; the Gomaco-built replica cars are still there, but since they're replicas, they're not on the list. Thanks to Eric Gilman for posting the photo.

A few hundred miles away in western Pennsylvania, another streetcar was "touching down" in a new home. Philadelphia Rapid Transit 2282, a 1906 Brill product, is the oldest double-truck car from that city in existence and the only example of a really "standard" Philly car from before the Nearside era. It's been stored at Electric City Trolley Museum for some time, but they are short on space and needed to pare down their collection a bit. Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum had room, so PTM is the new home for this historic - albeit undoubtedly less-than-pristine - car. It was unloaded in PTM's storage building today. This leaves ECTM with 23 cars on the list, though two of those are stored off-site and not accessioned.

And in unrelated news, an anonymous photographer sent me some pictures of the accidental scrapping of the Waterville Birney described here. I think we all hope that Seashore's future car re-homing efforts will hew more toward the example of 2282 and less toward this.

Philadelphia Car Heading West

Thanks to Bill Wulfert, who has passed along the news that Philadelphia Rapid Transit 2282 has been acquired by the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum from the Electric City Trolley Museum.

Car 2282 is in rough shape but it's extremely historic. It's the oldest double-truck streetcar, and the second-oldest streetcar (after this one, which is in imminent danger of demolition), from Philadelphia in existence. It was built by Brill in 1906 and when retired in 1928 it went to the Shamokin & Edgewood Electric, where it finished out its career 10 years later. The car has been through a few owners in the preservation era: it was at Magee until Hurricane Agnes did in that organization, then it was owned by Ed Blossom for a few decades before his collection went to ECTM in Scranton around 2000. In recent years, it's been stored in ECTM's barn in Moosic. I haven't updated the car's PNAERC record yet - I always do that when the car physically moves, and as far as I know, it's still in Scranton for the moment. But it's good to see that the car is going to another good home at PTM and that ECTM will have a spot open up for something else to be stored inside.

As for the museums involved, PTM has been on a bit of an acquisition spree lately in the wake of acquiring a new storage building along their line. This will be their third acquisition in the last couple of years, after Shamokin & Mt. Carmel 33 and Port Authority Transit 1713. For ECTM, this is their second deaccession in the last few years, after Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453. The museum doesn't really have any space to expand, nor anywhere to store cars outdoors, so if they want to acquire a new piece of equipment they need to get rid of something they have.

North Dakota streetcar for sale

There's only one preserved electric car in the state of North Dakota, and it's for sale. Grand Forks Street Railway 102, shown above in a 2016 photo from the Heritage Rail Alliance website, is a 1911 single-truck deck-roof car built by American. At one time, cars of this exact design were common in dozens of smaller Midwestern cities, but examples of the type are quite rare today. This car was fixed up, with body restoration seemingly done in a relatively authentic manner, and given a gas engine so that it could be used to carry people through Fort Lincoln Park near Bismarck. According to this article from the Bismarck Tribune, though, the operation is now for sale. Holdings include a few miles of track, car 102, and a replica open car that appears to have seen more regular use in recent years. It sounds like the owners are trying to sell the entire operation as a package deal, and want everything to remain intact and in situ. Time will tell whether that happens.

Meanwhile, in unrelated news, Laddie Vitek sends along this Mike Trosino photo taken back in April at the Electric City Trolley Museum. It shows Philadelphia C-127, a 1923 double-truck Brill snow sweeper, operating for the first time at ECTM. This sweeper is the only survivor of a sizable collection of electric cars once owned by the late Ed Mitchell in Uniontown, PA. In 2011, after Mitchell died, the collection was disposed of. Nearly all of the cars had been stored outside in very poor condition and were scrapped; of the three cars stored inside, the only one that escaped the torch was C-127. It was stored in Baltimore from 2011 until 2020.

At that point, ECTM acquired the trucks from scrapped sister car C-124, which had had its trucks regauged to standard gauge by its then-owned, Grand Rapids Electric Railway. ECTM also opened up an indoor storage spot by selling CA&E 453 to IRM. Car C-127 was then moved to Scranton, and since then it has received roof and electrical work to make it operational. Restoration work is continuing, but it is now the second Philadelphia snow sweeper preserved in operational condition, joining car C-145 in Baltimore.

Snow sweeper relocates

 

It has been reported on RyPN that Philadelphia snow sweeper C127 has finally, after several years of waiting, been relocated to Scranton and has arrived at the Electric City Trolley Museum. The sweeper is shown above in a photo posted in the aforementioned thread.

The car in question is one of eight surviving double-truck sweepers built by Brill for Philadelphia Rapid Transit in 1923 (though despite all being essentially identical four of the eight - C127 not among them - were built as plows and soon rebuilt as sweepers). Sweeper C127 was sold to Ed Mitchell in Uniontown, PA in 1974 and was stored on his farm - most of the time under cover - until he died and his collection was sold in 2011. "Sold" may not be the right word because out of maybe 10 or 12 pieces of traction equipment he owned, the only one not to get scrapped was C127. Instead it was purchased by ECTM but, due to a lack of storage space, it was transported to Baltimore. For the last nine years it has been stored (still under cover) at BSM awaiting an indoor berth in Scranton.

The sale of Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453 to IRM last year opened up that berth, so C127 is now residing with its owners. It joins identical car C128 in Scranton; that sweeper came via the Trolley Valhalla and Buckingham Valley groups and appears rough but complete. I'm not certain what the museum's plans for the two sweepers are. ECTM has managed to acquire a pair of correct trucks from sweeper C124, which had been preserved in Grand Rapids, Ohio and was scrapped in 2018, and these trucks have already been regauged to standard gauge so that will allow C127 to be placed on live rail.

So C127 is now listed under ECTM and not under BSM (I typically list cars based on their physical location with a notation about ownership). BSM isn't sweeper-less, though; in fact of the eight preserved Philly sweepers the only one currently operational is owned by BSM, car C145, which is now undergoing a major restoration project to return it to original condition.

Cars on the move

There are two cars on the PNAERC list that have recently moved. The first is Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453, pictured above in a photo taken earlier today. As noted on our sister blog, this 1946 interurban car was recently sold to the Illinois Railway Museum by the Electric City Trolley Museum. ECTM acquired it back in 2009 from Trolleyville as part of the consortium effort to distribute the collection of that organization when it went defunct, but after the car was moved to Scranton in early 2010 it was simply held in storage. For various reasons it was preserved but was not the focus of restoration work, and recently ECTM began eyeing the car's indoor storage spot as potential home for another car owned by that organization but stored off-site. With its addition to the IRM collection, that museum now owns ten CA&E cars evenly split between wood and steel cars, more than half of all the CA&E cars in preservation. And as a matter of trivia, car 453 is the first car sold as part of the 2009 consortium effort to have changed owners in the time since.

The other car that has recently moved is Lackawanna MU club car 2454, owned by the Whippany Railway Museum in New Jersey. While its ownership hasn't changed, the car has for several years been located in Boonton where it has been undergoing a monumental restoration effort courtesy of contractor Star Trak. That restoration job - I would it's say by far the most extensive ever done to a Lackawanna MU car - concluded earlier this year and photos posted on Facebook show that the car has now been sent on to the WRM site. Unfortunately it still has some boarded-up windows owing to a nasty vandalism incident in Boonton back in April but hopefully that damage is fixed soon. The car looks to be a real showpiece.

Third Avenue open car 651

Thanks to Richard Berk, who has sent in a couple of recent photos of Third Avenue Railway System 651 at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. This car has been the subject of a pretty monumental restoration over the years, going from a hulk to a complete body (and nearly complete car) with what would seem to be mostly new wood.

This is an old car, built by Brill in 1898 for Union Railway (though almost immediately going into the Third Avenue fleet), and sold in 1914 to Five Mile Beach Electric in Wildwood, NJ where it ran until 1945. Open cars weren't the most popular targets for resale as houses and sheds but for whatever reason several FMBE open cars, including this one, found post-retirement use in "chicken coop" form.

ECTM is currently rebuilding and regauging a pair of Brill 22 "Maximum Traction" trucks for the car. This may make car 651 unique among restored car bodies; I can't think of anywhere else in the U.S. that has sourced correct MaxTrac trucks for a restored car, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong on that. This pair of trucks came from Lisbon, where the tracks are 900mm gauge (a bit under 3'), so new wheel sets and a lot of new steel has been called for here. When complete, this car will be a truly stunning piece.

The Wilmington car

A business trip found me in Wilmington, Delaware this past weekend and that got me curious about the last surviving car from that city's street railway system: Delaware Electric Power 120, preserved today in operating condition at the Electric City Trolley Museum. (Photo above by Frank Dutton)

Until now this car has been listed in PNAERC as having been built by Laclede in 1904 and having run for DEP from then until about 1940, when it was sold to Philadelphia and used as a rail grinder until retirement and preservation in 1971. Some quick digging revealed that I had my early history wrong: DEP wasn't created until 1927. Before then it was Wilmington & Philadelphia Traction, and before 1910 that system was Wilmington City Railway. So I've updated the car's ownership history and I think I've got that correct. (I should mention that Wilmington had some of the most horrendously ugly streetcars ever built - feast your eyes on this - but fortunately 120 is not one of them and is a very attractive little car!)

The biggest question is exactly who built the car and when. ECTM's website says that it was built either by Laclede or Jackson & Sharp around 1904, so of course my next step was to refer to Harold Cox's roster site. This indeed has rosters of both builders but it's not apparent whether or not either roster is complete. There aren't any orders listed under Laclede built for lines in Delaware while there are several orders listed under J&S for Wilmington City Railway that have sketchy information and no fleet numbers listed. (I also can't figure out WCR numbering at all, which judging from Cox's order list seems to have bounced back and forth between two-digit, 100-series, 200-series, and 300-series numbering.)

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm tempted to change the car's builder to J&S but either way I'm just speculating. I have, at least, made a note that the car's builder and date of construction is uncertain.

The Electromobile goes to the Stourbridge Line

This photo is from a recent post on RyPN which relates that Scranton Transit 505, the last surviving Osgood-Bradley Electromobile, has been moved from its home at the Electric City Trolley Museum to the Stourbridge Line 30 miles away in Honesdale, PA. The latter operation will take point on some of the significant body repair and rebuilding work which (obviously) remains to be done. The scale of this project is impressive, given the totally disassembled kit that ECTM has started with, and it will be fascinating to see car 505 slowly regain its original appearance. On the PNAERC list the car's location has been changed to the Stourbridge Line, which is already included as an organization because they use a handful of Lackawanna MU cars in their excursion train. This is my standard practice to make it easier to track cars by physical location; other equipment like this snow sweeper in Baltimore are also stored at museums that do not own them. In my judgment it makes more sense to list them by physical location, at least in cases where the physical location already exists in PNAERC as an owner.

Electric City updates

I've received some updates on equipment at the Electric City Trolley Museum courtesy of an RyPN user who goes by the handle "6-18003." The most photogenic of these changes is shown above: Delaware Electric Power 120, which I believe is the only preserved car from the Wilmington, Delaware city system, is now once again operational. This attractive little single-trucker used to run at the old Penn's Landing Trolley operation but it's been a while since it saw use. For a while it was stored in Buckingham but was moved to Scranton about five years ago.

Other updates include progress on Scranton "Electromobile" 505, which has had the "frame only" notation removed. Steel work on the car is substantially done and work is beginning on rebuilding the wooden components of the body. The car is also being readied for its original trucks and WH 510A motors. I'm still looking for control and brake valve information on the car though.

And finally, a slight correction was made to Third Avenue Railway System 651, the open car at Scranton that saw later use on the Five Mile Beach Electric. Its motors were WH 56's once but they're long gone so it will be fitted with GE 80A motors out of a scrapped snow sweeper. (And it will only have two of them as it's got Maximum Traction trucks!) This change has been noted.

Scranton 324 progress

One of the more remarkable traction restoration projects going on right now is Scranton Transit 324, which started out as an unusual artifact in its own right. Built as a rather early double-truck car in 1903, it was heavily rebuilt in 1916 with an arched roof and steel sides. It survived as a body and was scooped up by the Electric City Trolley Museum in 2000. Over the last couple of years it has undergone a startling transformation, with its body torn down to the frame and totally rebuilt (due in large part to Keith Bray, who has contributed to a number of car restoration efforts in the mid-Atlantic region). Streetcars that were so heavily modernized in the company shops were not uncommon at one time but aren't very well represented in preservation so this car is pretty significant. (It's also a flashier paint job than 99% of the other streetcars out there!)

Anyway, until now it has been listed on PNAERC as a body, but the photo above showed up on the ECTM website at some point recently and proves that the car is now on its trucks. So I've updated the list to reflect that it now has Brill 27G trucks and WH 101 motors installed (at least I believe that's what's under the car now). It looks like it's still waiting for controllers but I'm sure those aren't far off and they may actually be installed already.

Electromobile under restoration

A post on the Railway Preservation News "Interchange" here shows that Scranton Transit 505, the only remaining Osgood-Bradley "Electromobile," is now the focus of serious restoration work. Fundraising for this project has been going on for a few years and within the past year or so the car's shell was moved off-site and is now having significant steel work done. This is being accomplished in part by using components from Queensborough Bridge Railway 601, another "Electromobile," which was scrapped at the Trolley Museum of New York back in March 2009. That car had deteriorated badly but many components were salvaged for the Scranton 505 project.

With this project underway, Electric City Trolley Museum has the distinction of owning two Scranton streetcars that are being restored at the same time. Scranton 324, a modernized 1903 Brill car, has also seen a remarkable transformation from a tired carbody and last I heard was at the point of having interior and mechanical work done.