Union Traction 429 Runs

This news has been pretty widely disseminated, but I finally got around to updating the PNAERC list. Union Traction 429 ran for the first time a few weeks ago, moving a few feet on a (very) short piece of track laid inside its barn in Russiaville, Indiana. This is quite an impressive feat given that the car was acquired by its current owner, Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company, in 2018 as a car body, and given that HHTC has pretty minimal facilities to work with by most museums' standards. But the organization has a very dedicated group of people all concentrating on this one car, and the results are apparent.

Intriguingly, car 429 is no longer on the correct-type C80P trucks it had when it left its former home, the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, in 2018. It's now on generally similar C60 trucks from CRANDIC 55, which was scrapped for parts in 2019. Car 429 is running on two motors, and I'm guessing those may be WH 562D3's from the CRANDIC steeplecab, but I'm not sure. Anyway, there's plenty of work left to do on car 429, but the rapid pace of progress is commendable.

In unrelated news that I also happened to come across today, Los Angeles Railway 936 - shown above in a recent photo posted to Facebook by Murphy Zane Jenkins-Henson - appears to be the focus of a restoration effort at the Southern California Railway Museum, née Orange Empire. This is a center-entrance car built in 1914 by St. Louis and known on LARy as a "Sowbelly." Though one of three surviving, all car bodies, this is thought to be by far the best of the three. I'm not sure whether this is a cosmetic restoration or is the start of a full operational restoration; if the latter, it should be quite impressive, as this is one of the most distinctive LARy designs. Any information is appreciated.

Singer 1 to Hoosier Heartland

Singer 1, the 1898-vintage 250-volt GE switching locomotive formerly at the Indiana Transportation Museum, has been donated by its owner to the Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company. The photo above, from the HHTC website page on the locomotive, shows it being moved into that organization's barn.

Singer 1 is an unusual little industrial critter. It was used at the Singer sewing machine factory in South Bend, Indiana until retirement in 1955, after which it was bought by Bob Selle. For a time it was stored at the Illinois Railway Museum's original site in North Chicago, then later it was stored for a time in Winthrop Harbor, Illinois. In 1971 it made its way to Noblesville, where it was displayed in good condition at the Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication (later ITM) for many years. When ITM was evicted in 2018 the locomotive - still privately owned, never having been sold or transferred to ITM - was moved to Francesville, Indiana, where it has been stored since. It's the first complete piece of traction equipment owned by HHTC and also the group's first piece of freight equipment, joining a trio of interurban cars and a streetcar.

CRANDIC 55 off the list

Thanks to Bob Harris, who has related the news that Cedar Rapids & Iowa City (CRANDIC) 55, a steeplecab formerly preserved at the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, has been scrapped for parts. The first photo was taken on Thursday the 26th, the second late on Friday the 28th.

CRANDIC 55 was built in 1926 by Detroit United, which ran it until 1928 when it went from being DUR 2007 to Eastern Michigan Railway 2007. In 1935 when EMR quit, the locomotive was sold to CRANDIC which ran it until the wires came down in the 1950s. It sat at the CRANDIC shop until the late-1960s, when it was spotted by Indiana traction fans who bought it and moved it to the nascent Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication in Noblesville, later to become ITM.

Though complete, the locomotive was deteriorated when it arrived in Noblesville and it never ran there. Its condition gradually worsened over four decades of benign neglect and by the time ITM was evicted from its site in 2018 the locomotive looked like this. Nobody stepped forward to attempt to save CRANDIC 55 but it's fortunate that it didn't simply become nails and razor blades (as did other equipment in comparable condition). Instead, a couple of different groups including Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company purchased the locomotive and moved it off-site to be stripped for parts. Components from the steeplecab will go to help make Union Traction 437 and other cars complete.

Indianapolis Peter Witt moved to new home

The latest electric car to leave the old Indiana Transportation Museum site in Forest Park, Noblesville is Indianapolis Railways 153. The news, and the photo above, come from a Facebook post (no log-in required) by the Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company. HHTC has moved car 153 to its site where it is being kept under cover along with the organization's three interurban cars.

Car 153 is very historic. It's the last electric streetcar from Indianapolis and is arguably the most modern streetcar preserved from before the streamliner/PCC era (Portland 813 is of the same vintage but has older-style K-control, rather than 153's PCM control, and lacks the more modern Peter Witt door arrangement). As such it's a significant piece, but unfortunately it has suffered grievously during its years of neglect in Forest Park. It was very close to being scrapped but HHTC stepped in and saved the car, installing steel beams to reinforce the underframe to allow the car to be moved. And of course even when ITM acquired the car in the 1970s it was a body, lacking trucks, control, and an interior.

Electric locomotive leaves Noblesville

Bob Harris has confirmed that yesterday, the 26th, Cedar Rapids & Iowa City 55 left the former Indiana Transportation Museum site in Noblesville. It has been moved to the nearby Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company site where usable components will be salvaged for use on interurban cars owned by HHTC and also for use on Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend 73, which is not part of the HHTC collection. The locomotive's trucks are close to what was used by the Union Traction 427-series combines and will be placed under Union Traction 437.

CRANDIC 55 was built in 1926 by Detroit United and is one of only three extant pieces - all freight or non-revenue equipment - in existence from that system. It later went to the Eastern Michigan and then, in 1935 when it was only nine years old, to the CRANDIC in Iowa. It ran there for 18 years, until the wires came down in 1953, but it remained stored on the property until the mid-1960s when it was noticed and acquired by members of the Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication, later ITM. It was moved to Noblesville but never ran and garnered little attention. In recent decades its condition has deteriorated badly to the point where it would be a major project just to make the locomotive presentable. Only three electric cars now remain in Forest Park: Indianapolis Railways 153, North Shore 172, and Lackawanna MU car 4328.

Third car moved to Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company

Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company, which was formed earlier in 2018 for the purpose of acquiring for preservation several pieces of traction equipment from the Indiana Transportation Museum, moved its third car from the ITM site in Noblesville to its own property on Friday. This car is Union Traction 429, the "Noblesville," and it joins identical car 437 which was previously moved by HHTC.

Car 429 was arguably the jewel of the ITM traction collection, such as it was. The car was built by St. Louis in 1925 and ran into the 1930s under UTC and later Indiana Railroad. In 1968 it became the first piece of electric passenger equipment from Indiana acquired by ITM, which at the time was known as the Indiana Museum of Transportation and Communication: IMOTAC. Though always a body, ITM acquired the correct trucks and other electric equipment for the car and did a rather nice cosmetic restoration. It was the only piece of electric equipment to go into ITM's barn when it was built and to stay there until the present day. Overall it would have been a strong candidate for full operational restoration, had ITM's traction program not collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s. It is thought that HHTC intends a full, but non-operating, restoration.

There is one oddity about the 429: it's not certain that it's the 429. When the car body was acquired by IMOTAC it was very quickly sand-blasted, with all original traces of lettering erased, and painted as the "Noblesville" - the city that was home to the museum. Whether that's a fortuitous coincidence or a bit of historical revisionism is probably lost to history.

The ITM collection, as listed on the PNAERC roster, now stands at nine cars: four Lackawanna MU cars, two locomotives, two interurban cars, and a streetcar body.

EDIT: Through other sources HHTC has stated that they do intend an operational restoration of car 429, which is good to hear, and which also suggests they plan on building an electrified demonstration railway on which it can operate. Presumably plans for full restoration also apply to their other cars including UTC 437, THI&E 81, and Indianapolis Railways 153, the last of which is still in Forest Park in Noblesville.

Second car to Hoosier Heartland

The Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company is growing again. Yesterday their second car, Union Traction 437, was moved from the old Indiana Transportation Museum site in Forest Park in Noblesville to HHTC property. Photos are available on their Facebook page, which is also where the above photo is from. Car 437 is the second of the four electric cars that HHTC purchased from ITM before that organization's eviction.

The car is one of two identical Union Traction cars in existence, the only existing cars from that line. It was built by St. Louis in 1925 and while running for Union Traction was named the "Marion." It's been stored outdoors at ITM since it was acquired in 1981 and is in rough, but potentially salvageable, condition. For its part, the ex-ITM collection in Noblesville is now down to six cars - including the other two cars purchased by HHTC - plus some Lackawanna MU cars.

Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern car leaves Noblesville

News comes from Facebook that the Hoosier Heartland Trolley Company, a newly-formed private group of individuals from central Indiana, has made its first acquisition. Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern 81, shown above in a photo from HHTC's post, was moved out of Forest Park in Noblesville yesterday. It was moved to private property near Noblesville.

Car 81 is really pretty historic, though its condition obviously leaves a lot to be desired. It was built in 1902 by Jewett as Indianapolis & Martinsville Rapid Transit 61, making it the oldest Jewett-built interurban car in existence and the eldest of the three extant THI&E cars. In later years it was painted in the THI&E's flashy chrome yellow livery and gained the name "Central Normal." It's been in Noblesville since 1978 and has been stored indoors for perhaps the last 10 years or so. As for HHTC, it was formed for the specific purpose of saving several electric cars from the Indiana Transportation Museum collection being evicted from Forest Park. Car 81 is the first to be moved; the plan is to follow it up with Union Traction 429 and 437 and Indianapolis Railways 153.

ITM's shrinking collection, according to the PNAERC list, now stands at 11 cars, of which four are Lackawanna MU cars. Of course for many of these cars it's a bit of a misnomer to list ITM as the owner, since the nine cars still in Forest Park are technically owned by the City of Noblesville, but for simplicity's sake they're still listed under the ITM name.