The Kerwin Rail Grinder

I was looking up something in a 1911 Electric Railway Journal available on the Smithsonian website and started idly perusing the publication, as you do. I happened upon this article, which caught my eye immediately.

That looks familiar, I thought. And sure enough, I was right. It's an unmistakable match for Servicio de Transportes Electricos del Distrito Federal 100, a rail grinder preserved at the transit agency's museum in Mexico City.

I don't have much info on SDTE 100, and in fact it has heretofore been listed as being a 1900 product of Brill. But, of course, I couldn't find anything about it in the Brill order books, and now I know why. I've updated its builder to the Kerwin Machine Company and removed the year built; I'd guess it's likely around 1910 but can't be sure. The rail grinder in Mexico City has been modified somewhat - it's lost the "skate" hanging off the rear and has had a small platform built onto the front with a dash panel and possibly a controller - but it's got to be a Kerwin. (Given that Kerwin was based in Detroit; that city was using these grinders as of 1911; and Mexico City bought a bunch of Detroit PCCs in the 1950s, it's tempting to wonder whether this critter ran in Detroit and came to Mexico City secondhand. But there's no evidence for that, and rail grinders of this description don't appear at all in my CERA book on Detroit Street Railway.)

SDTE 100 is unassuming but is pretty unusual, actually. First, it's one of only two cars on the list with an "A1" wheel arrangement, designating four wheels and a single motor (the other is the homebuilt Ponemah Mills line car at the Connecticut Trolley Museum). It's also the only thing on the list built by Kerwin. More importantly, it's one of only 12 electric railway rail grinders preserved, and one of only five built for that purpose (the other seven were rebuilt from older streetcars). Of those five, two (one each at the National Museum of Transport and Southern California Railway Museum) sport more typical "house" construction. That leaves only this and two similarly diminutive (and skeletal) grinders built by the Goldschmidt Thermit Company, both preserved at Seashore.

Mexico City Work Motor Identified

Thanks to a fascinating Facebook page I stumbled upon called Tranvias de Mexico, I have now managed to identify a piece of equipment that formerly was listed as "number unknown." The car in question is Servicio de Transportes Electricos del Distrito Federal 1422, shown here, which was restored and placed on static display at the transit agency's museum in Mexico City about 15 years ago. I knew that the car had been in the 1400-series on SDTE, but until now I never knew its exact number, since the car was never lettered after restoration for some reason. Its PNAERC record has now been updated.

I'm still not clear on when this car was retired. The above photo, from the same Facebook page, shows it late in its service life and possibly after retirement - to the left is SDTE 1303, a single-truck line car whose body is preserved at the same museum as 1422. But it appears that it was simply kept stored at Tetepilco Shops for years after retirement until the transit agency built its little museum there at Tetepilco in 2006. The work car is interesting not only because gondola motors like this are very rare in preservation, but also because it may have the last extant pair of Brill 23G trucks. They're a pretty weird and distinctive design that Mexico City seemed to like using for its work cars.

Postcard from Tetepilco

While looking for photos taken at the Museo de Transportes Electricos del Distrito Federal, or Federal District Electric Transportation Museum, in Mexico City I stumbled across some interesting updates. Again, I'm a little behind the times on this, but it's good to get the roster updated nonetheless. The thing that surprised me most is that a few years back (apparently in 2012 or 2013) the museum cosmetically restored a second PCC. The car, Servicio de Transportes Electricos del Distrito Federal 2434, is shown above in the only picture I've been able to come across showing it. The last I knew of this car it was in dead storage at nearby Tetepilco Shops (as seen in the car's record linked above) so I was surprised that it had been fixed up and put on display. It's something of a contrast with the other PCC on display at the museum, STE 2192, which was cosmetically restored back in 2006. That car (which is lettered 2784 for reasons totally unknown to me) is an ex-Detroit car and somewhat more closely resembles its original American appearance. Car 2434, though, is an ex-Minneapolis car and received a few extra modifications including smaller front doors and a different windshield. It has been updated to reflect the fact that it's now on public display.

Photos of this museum are hard to come by online, but as luck would have it, it's easily visible from Google Street View! From the street you can easily see the body of line car 1303 with car 2434 behind it, with PCC 2192 and car 0 down the track from the line car.