The San Diego Heritage Fleet Contracts

Thanks to Chris Baldwin for sending along updates regarding the heritage fleet in San Diego, which is run by the transit agency but goes by the moniker San Diego Vintage Trolley. SDVT has recently scrapped two of the cars in their collection, so their historic fleet now numbers four.

The first car scrapped, shown above, was San Francisco Municipal Railway 1123. It was built by St. Louis in 1946 as St. Louis Public Service 1728; went to Muni in 1957; and was sold to Tahoe Valley Lines in 1994, where it sat in dead storage in 2005. When San Diego started up their heritage trolley effort in 2005, the first two PCCs they acquired were 1122, which was renumbered 529 (this car was restored and put into service in 2011), and this one. Car 1123 was going to become SDVT 530 (you can see that number over its headlight in the above Peter Ehrlich photo from 2009), but sometime in the early 2010s this plan was shelved and ex-Newark PCC 10 was rebuilt as 530 instead. This car had been stored under a tarp for years.

After SDVT acquired cars 1122 and 1123 in 2005, they picked up Muni 1170 in 2006 (this car was briefly given the number 531, but was then cosmetically restored with the number 539 and given to a nearby museum in 2013). Their next acquisition, shown above in a 2016 photo, was SEPTA PCC 2186, built by St. Louis in 1948. This car went to the Museum of Transportation in Missouri in 1994 and was sold to SDVT in 2009. It was initially given the number 532, then a couple of years later it was reassigned as 531. It was stripped down to a shell in the early 2010s, but this rebuild was never finished; Chris reports that the project was cancelled and the money instead used to refurbish LRV 1001. This car, too, has been scrapped. This leaves only the two operational cars, 529 and 530, and SEPTA 2785, acquired directly from SEPTA in 2010 and supposedly assigned the number 533.

The PNAERC roster has been updated to remove cars 1123/530 and 2186/532/531. I've also changed the operating fleet of two PCCs and an LRV from "operated often" to "operated occasionally." Chris relates that the PCCs, at least, are rarely if ever run these days, so it may be that "stored operable" would be more accurate.

The PNAERC list currently stands at 2,085 cars in total.

San Diego update

The Times of San Diego has posted in an article here that the city's first light rail car, U2 1001, has been put into regular historic service on the "Silver Line" downtown route. There it will join a pair of heavily rebuilt PCC cars, currently numbered 529 and 530, in heritage service. It seems to me that anyone showing up to ride on a PCC would be a bit disappointed to have a light rail set pull up, but I suppose that it's all relative and even the seemingly modern U2 cars are already historic. They're no more rare than PCC cars though: besides a number of U2 cars from San Diego that were resold for continued service in South America, a total of seven have been preserved in this country - just as many as there are Boeing-Vertol LRV's still extant.

Speaking of the San Diego heritage operation, I'm looking for updated information on the San Diego fleet. Besides the U2 and the two PCC cars in service, last I knew a third PCC - ex-Philadelphia car 531 - was undergoing rebuild to join them. However I don't know whether that is still an active project or whether the car has been mothballed. There's also ex-Philadelphia 533, apparently in storage, and Muni 1123, last seen being cannibalized for parts. Finally there's Newark 16, which is still stored in western New York; I believe this car was intended for San Diego at one point but I don't know who owns it currently. Clarification would be appreciated. UPDATE: Click here for updated information on SDVT.

San Diego PCC update

I've updated a few records for PCC cars owned, and formerly owned, by San Diego Vintage Trolley. This has become a bit of a chore given changes in direction and renumberings but I think I've got it down:

Cars in service:
SDVT 529 - ex-SLPS 1716, ex-Muni 1122, acquired 2005, into service 2011
SDVT 530 - ex-TCRT 329, ex-PSCT/NJT 10, acquired 2012, into service 2014

Undergoing rebuild for service on SDVT:
SDVT 531 - ex-PTC/SEPTA 2186, acquired 2009, assigned number 532 until sometime around 2014

Not in service and stored on-site for potential future use on SDVT:
SDVT 533 - ex-PTC/SEPTA 2785, acquired 2010, has not been repainted or renumbered

Cars not in service and stored off-site in the east:
NJT 16 - ex-TCRT 335, acquired 2014
NJT 24 - ex-TCRT 363, acquired 2014

Being stripped for parts by SDVT:
Muni 1123 - ex-SLPS 1728, acquired 2005, assigned number 530 until sometime around 2014, being used as a parts source for SDVT 531

Sold by SDVT to San Diego Electric Railway Association in 2013:
"SDER 539" - ex-SLPS 1777, ex-Muni 1170, acquired by SDVT 2006, assigned number 531 until 2013, at that time was cosmetically restored (in SDER colors) for SDERA and numbered 539

I suppose the initial fleet was going to consist of cars numbered 529-532 (ex-1122, 1123, 1170, and 2186) with 533 (ex-2785) added on about 2010; then in the early 2010s, when ex-Newark cars became available, this changed. Car 529 was finished, 530 made into a parts source and an ex-Newark car assigned number 530, 531 sold, and 532 moved up in the queue and assigned number 531. Car 2785, originally assigned 533, may not receive that number but is apparently in storage intact. I should note that the car sold in 2013 to SDERA has been altered in the roster and listed as Muni 1170 but with a notation that it is lettered SDER 539, a "fictitious" designation as it never wore that number or that livery in service.

Addition and transfers

First off for today, San Diego LRV 1001 - the class car of that city's first order for modern LRVs for its first light rail line in the early 1980s - has been added to the list. The car has been designated for preservation by the San Diego system and has been assigned to the San Diego Vintage Trolley historic fleet there. This makes car 1001 the fifth car of its type to be preserved; there are two more in Rio Vista, one at Orange Empire and one out east at Rockhill Trolley Museum.

I also updated a couple of the Lackawanna MU cars that were already on the roster. A 2014 photo of car 3607, one of the 1930 motor cars, came to my attention showing that the car has been sold by the Everett Railroad in Pennsylvania to the Durbin & Greenbriar Valley (though lettered for West Virginia Central, a subsidiary of the D&GV) in West Virginia. It was on the Everett in 2005 but I'm not sure exactly when it went to West Virginia; anyone have an exact date? This is one of the ex-Knox & Kane cars, most of which were sold to Heber Valley in Utah where they are currently in use.

And finally, club car 2454's ownership was changed to the Whippany Railway Museum. This had already been listed in the car's notes, as it was formally donated to WRM by former owner United Railroad Historical Society in 2014, but I hadn't changed the owner in the database since the car hadn't left Boonton. However the car is currently undergoing restoration at Star Trak in Boonton on behalf of Whippany so I figured I may as well correct and update the car's owner. This ought to be a very impressive restoration when it's done; these Lackawanna club cars were very distinct pieces.

AEM7 preserved, shuffling in San Diego

It's not exactly "news" that the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania acquired an Amtrak AEM7 - it was just about a year ago that it happened - but I have now gotten around to having the PNAERC list reflect that. Amtrak 915 is now included, though I'm still short some technical data on its control, brakes and motors.

And in other news, I've updated the status of several electric cars in San Diego that have been shuffled around. "California car" 54 was acquired by the San Diego Electric Railway Association last year and moved from Balboa Park to their National City site, where it is now stored next to the depot there. SDERA also acquired an ex-St. Louis, ex-Muni PCC which had originally been slated for rebuilding and use on the San Diego Vintage Trolley heritage operation. As for SDVT, it has lost the aforementioned car but gained ex-Newark 10 which was rebuilt out east and is already in service painted up as car 530. Another ex-St. Louis car was already assigned the number 530, so I'm not sure what the plans for that car are at the moment. There are also two ex-Philadelphia PCC cars on hand which I believe are intended for rebuilding and use in the SDVT operation.