News Roundup

Unusually enough, there's news today from a few different directions, and on a few different topics.

First off, thanks to Bill Wall for passing along the news that Seashore has again updated their "re-homing list."

Most of the cars on it are the same as the last edition, but there are three new additions that the museum has decided to deaccession. The first, pictured above in a photo taken way back in 1998, is Knoxville Power & Light 410. This is a single-truck curve-side car built by Cincinnati in 1924 and retired in 1939. It's a body, of course, and is in rough shape if the 28-year-old photo is any indication. This car is a bit odd in that it's simultaneously rare and, yet, not rare. There are only six Cincinnati curve-side cars in existence, however three of them are Knoxville single-truck bodies identical to car 410. And the other two are in much better condition than car 410: car 416 has been fully (albeit non-operationally) restored in its hometown, while car 419 is unrestored but preserved in solid condition at IRM as a body.

The other two additions to the re-homing list are true oddballs on the PNAERC list. They're both diminutive rail grinders built in 1913 by the Goldschmidt Thermit Company for the Boston Elevated Railway. Above is MBTA 0517, which has certainly seen better days.

And here's MBTA 3234 (both of these photos were taken within the past few months and were printed in the new re-homing list). I'll confess, I recall seeing these cars sitting off on a siding at Seashore for many years but not until now did I know which one was which! Anyway, there was a time that small, purpose-built rail grinders like this were not uncommon on street railways. They're exceedingly rare now, though; my best guess is that they were just exceedingly uninteresting to the fans running the trolley museums back in the 1950s. Most surviving rail grinders were rebuilt from streetcars or, at the very least, had interesting car bodies. Besides these two, I think the only rail grinder of this general outline on the PNAERC list is the Kerwin-built example preserved in Mexico City.

There are now a total of 34 cars at Seashore on the PNAERC roster that have been deaccessioned, offered to other organizations, or designated for disposal. That's about 18% of their traction collection.

And now, let's proceed a few miles to the southwest and visit another one of the "three sisters," the Connecticut Trolley Museum.

The news from CTM is the precise opposite of the news from Seashore: in this case, a car is being re-accessioned. The car in question is Long Island Rail Road 4153, an MP54A1 commuter car built by AC&F in 1930. Way back in 2018, CTM deaccessioned this car and made it available to other organizations. It hasn't found a taker. However, the museum has now elected to retain it for their historic collection after all. This is good from an historical standpoint because there are very few MP54's still remaining in anything resembling original condition; in fact, I'd say there are only two, this car and sister car 1149 in Syracuse (and I don't know how complete that car is). I'm also pretty sure 4153 is the most recent MP54 to operate, as it did run at CTM during the 1970s, and maybe more recently. Many thanks to [correction!] Andy Borst of CTM for letting me know about 4153's status change.

And finally, a few more miles to the southwest, some disconcerting news comes tonight from our friends at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. They've announced on their Facebook page (full text of the announcement is below, for the record) that they have lost the use of their railroad except on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons. The other four days of the week, and the mornings of these three days, their line has been requisitioned by the East Broad Top for use by a railbike operation.

The EBT has always owned the land under RTM's railroad, but for some 60 years the two organizations have operated side-by-side in what has seemed like a mutually beneficial arrangement. I'm not sure exactly what to extrapolate from this news, but I hope that the EBT finds somewhere else to put their railbikes and that they return to the past state of equilibrium with the trolley museum.

Announcement text:

Rockhill Trolley Museum would like to extend a sincere apology to our valued visitors for an upcoming change to our operating schedule.

Beginning July 1, 2026, East Broad Top Railroad will be operating standard-gauge rail bikes on our trolley line Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday through Sunday from 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

Due to the change being out of our control, we are required to limit trolley rides to Friday through Sunday with departures at: 12:45 PM, 2:00 PM, 3:15 PM, and 4:30 PM. Museum store hours are being finalized and will be announced as soon as they are updated.

Purchasing trolley tickets can still be done in our museum store or online at rockhilltrolley.org and are valid for unlimited rides on the date they are redeemed. Please note our tickets are no longer available through East Broad Top Railroad at the station or online.

We understand schedule changes can be disappointing, and we sincerely regret any inconveniences. Your continued support is greatly appreciated as our volunteers continue to provide a welcoming and educational visitor experience. We look forward to seeing you this season!

South Shore 32 Scrapped

In a post today on the Ahead of the Torch Facebook group, it was confirmed that Seashore has scrapped South Shore interurban car 32. This is no great loss; of the 40 coaches operated by the CSS&SB between the 1920s and the early 1980s, no fewer than 27 - a full two-thirds - are still in existence, including "flanking" cars 30, 31, 33, and 34. This particular car was in particularly bad condition because its frame was damaged during transportation to Maine. It was deaccessioned by Seashore in 2022 but found no takers; Seashore coordinated with East Troy volunteers to allow that museum to harvest some parts off the car this spring. The Seashore collection, at least on the PNAERC roster, is now down to 185 cars, and the overall roster stands at 2,088 pieces.

Long Island MP54 Scrapped

News comes from Facebook today that Long Island Rail Road 4137, shown above in 2016, has been scrapped at the Seashore Trolley Museum. A lot of equipment was salvaged from the car to benefit cars at other museums, including seats and electrical parts that will go to New Haven "Washboard" MU combines preserved in Danbury.

Photo posted 5/28/2026 on Ahead of the Torch

Car 4137 was an MP-54A1 third-rail commuter coach built by AC&F in 1930 as LIRR 1137. It was retired in 1972 and sold to Seashore, so it's been in Kennebunkport for longer than it was in service. The car never ran at Seashore, though, and over the past decade or two its condition had deteriorated markedly. It was offered to other organizations for preservation back in 2022 but found no takers.

This reduces the number of LIRR cars on the PNAERC list to four, but of those, one is a "tunneled" static display piece and a second has been deaccessioned by its owner. The only LIRR MP-54 that seems to be in solid condition is car 1149, on display at the fairgrounds in Syracuse. (There's also unusual double-deck trailer 200, preserved on Long Island.) MP-54s have not fared well in preservation; they seem particularly prone to rusting out, and their size and unsuitability for operation has meant they've rarely found homes except as "stripped" coaches on tourist railroads. There are 12 MP-54s on the PNAERC list when ex-PRR examples are included, but besides the three LIRR examples listed above, three are hulks due to be scrapped, five have been stripped of their electrical equipment and turned into tourist railroad coaches, and the remaining car is stored outdoors in rough shape.

Seashore's collection on the PNAERC list is now 186 pieces, and there are 2,090 cars on the list in total.

Seashore Re-Homing List Update

The latest Seashore Trolley Museum "re-homing list" update has dropped, and it adds a handful of cars to the various pieces still hanging out on the list from previous editions of the list.

The most significant addition to the list is Harrisburg Railways 811, shown above in a 2016 photo. One of two Harrisburg streetcars in existence, this double-truck, arch-roof semi-convertible was built by Brill in 1918. It's of generally similar design to the other extant Harrisburg car, 1914-vintage car 710, but has steel sides. As can be seen, it also has some serious structural issues. It's the only car of its series in existence, so it's technically unique, but it's not remarkably historic.

Another addition to the re-homing list is Cleveland Transit System 113, a "Bluebird" PCC rapid transit car built in 1958 by St. Louis. This car hasn't been included in Seashore's published re-homing lists, but it was deaccessioned a couple of years ago and has been listed on PNAERC as "available for sale" since early 2024. This car is a Trolleyville alumnus, and came to Seashore in 2010 as part of that museum's dissolution. It's one of three single-unit "Bluebirds" in existence, with the other two - car 109, restored and operational, and car 112, which is probably in similar condition to 113 - both at Northern Ohio.

The other new car on the list is MBTA 0579, which isn't on the PNAERC roster. It's a flat car from the Boston 'L' system and is fitted with a small cab for use as a shove platform, but as far as I can tell, it's not electrified. The photo above is from the museum's re-homing document.

There are also quite a few cars on the latest re-homing document that have been carried over from previous editions. Boston Elevated Railway "Cambridge-Dorchester" subway cars 0709, 0749, 0753, and 0754; "main line elevated" cars 0986 and 0996; work motor 0575; and flat car 0503 (not on PNAERC), as well as New York subway car 175 were all added to the list in November 2023. Chicago Transit Authority 1 was added in October 2023, Laconia Street Railway 17 was added in March 2023, and Boston PCC 3037 has been on the list since all the way back in June 2020.

There are a lot of cars that were on previous editions of the re-homing list but are not on the current version, so it's unclear how many might still be available to other museums and how many are now slated for scrapping. Three cars added to the re-homing list in December 2025 are missing, namely MBTA 0997, SEPTA 1018, and Atlantic City 299, as is Staten Island Rapid Transit 366, added to the list in November 2023 alongside the Boston 0700s. Virginia Electric Power 194, Mobile 49, and Boston 3608 were added to the list in March 2023. South Shore 32 and Long Island Rail Road 4137, both added back in July 2022, as well as Boston PCC 3328, added to the re-homing list in 2020, have recently been stripped for parts and are known to be on the short list to be scrapped soon. Other assorted Boston PCCs listed as available back in 2020, including cars 3069, 3174, 3327, 3331, 3338, and 3344, are missing from the latest version of the list.

Finally, a couple of cars that were never included in published "re-homing" lists are slated to leave Kennebunkport. These include Roanoke "Master Unit" 51, transferred to the Roanoke NRHS chapter in 2024 but not yet moved, and SEPTA "Bullet" car 208, which is being stripped for parts prior to scrapping.

"Almond Joy" Car Arrives in Kingston

The Trolley Museum of New York announced today on their Facebook page that SEPTA 618, one of two preserved "Almond Joy" cars from the Market-Frankford Elevated in Philadelphia, has arrived at the TMNY site in Kingston. The car has been listed under TMNY ownership since May 2025, which is when it departed its former home at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine, but it had been kept at an intermediate storage facility for the last 10 months before it landed at its new home. Car 618 is a single-unit (as opposed to part of married pair) car built by Budd in 1960.

I'm a little hazy on the end of its career, but I believe it was one of a handful of these cars kept around for work service after the remainder of the Budd fleet was retired in 1999. Regardless, in 2002 the car went to Seashore, where it was joined by a pair of standard-gauge ex-PATH "K car" trucks that had been placed under a different "Almond Joy" car that had seen use on the standard-gauge Norristown high-speed line from 1989 to 1992. Those trucks had been set aside upon retirement for exactly this purpose, i.e., making an "Almond Joy" car usable at a standard-gauge trolley museum. Car 618 was never placed on those trucks, though, and spent its time at Seashore on a truck trailer. It was conveyed to TMNY in January 2024. Sometime soon, it will be put on standard-gauge trucks for the first time at TMNY.

EDIT: Many thanks to Mark Wolodarsky of TMNY, who sent along this account of car 618's history: The car was retired in early 1999, and was prepped for preservation by the shops at Bridge Street. It was moved to 69th Street Yard in March 1999 where it was loaded onto the dolly that it remains on. It was then moved to the SEPTA Midvale Bus garage for storage, where it remained until being moved to Seashore in 2002. We hope to put it onto its trucks this year. We are raising funds for the cost of a crane rental.

More Cars Deaccessioned by Seashore

(UPDATED - see bottom of post) It's been a little while since there have been any updates to Seashore's re-homing plans, but news has arrived of a few updates. Specifically, three more cars have been marked for disposition.

The first car, shown above in a 2020 photo, is MBTA 0997. This is a 1928 Wason-built rapid transit car built for the Main Line Elevated in Boston. It's been at Seashore since 1981. It's identical to car 01000, which is restored and operational, but 0997 hasn't run in a number of years and looks to be in rough - albeit complete - condition. It's been made available for re-homing. (Seashore actually has four cars from this series, but the other two, 0986 and 0996, are in semi-derelict condition back in the woods and have never been considered part of the historic collection.)

The next recent addition to the re-homing list is SEPTA 1018, a Philadelphia-Delaware Bridge car built by Brill in 1936. The above photo, taken way back in 2008, is the most recent image of this car I can find, making it unusually elusive. Identical car 1023 is also at the museum; a decade or so ago that car was painted in original blue and silver colors and was even made operational for a time, but car 1018 has remained in its end-of-service Broad Street Subway "dip" red livery and has never, to my knowledge, operated at Seashore. Cars 1018 and 1023 are two of six cars of this class still in existence, with the others including a pair on PATCO in Lindenwold (albeit modified for work service), a car stored at Fern Rock Yard in Philadelphia, and a car preserved at the Rockhill Trolley Museum

The last car added to the deaccession list is Atlantic City 299, shown here in 2016. Of the three cars, this one is the most historically significant but is also in the worst condition by far. It's a double-truck lightweight streetcar built by St. Louis in 1925 for Fort Wayne, Indiana, making it the last extant car from that city and (I believe) one of only six streetcars in existence from any city in the Hoosier State. It ran as Fort Wayne Street Railway 552 until it was sold to Atlantic City in 1946, where it was modernized a bit and renumbered 299. It was retired in 1955 and its body was sold to someone in Cross Keys, NJ, where it remained until Seashore got it in 1988 as part of their "last roundup" carbody collecting campaign. For a time, the car was stored in the Fairview barn, but recently it seems to have been moved outside and it has now been slated for scrapping due to the condition of the body.

UPDATE: Seashore has also confirmed that they've recently scrapped Ottawa Transportation Commission 825, a 1923 Ottawa-built car body described here that was in atrocious condition. There are two other Ottawa 800s preserved in Canada, albeit from the 1927 order, and between that and the truly skeletal nature of car 825, it's hard to say this is much of a loss (the above photo was taken back in 2016, before the car's roof caved in). I've removed car 825 from the PNAERC roster, leaving Seashore with 187 cars on the list and a grand total of 2,082 cars on the list in all.

Bullet Car Parts

Seashore has posted on their Facebook page that SEPTA "Bullet" car 208, one of three identical cars of that series preserved in Kennebunkport, is being stripped for parts to assist in the restoration of sister car 205 at Rockhill. Car 208 has been deaccessioned, and the plan is to "part it out" and dismantle it.

This isn't a significant loss, historically speaking. Of the 10 "Bullet" cars built for the Philadelphia & Western,* six (soon to be five) are still around, so the type is pretty over-represented. Car 203, the last "Bullet" car built (as a wreck replacement in 1933), is also at Seashore, as is car 207, which has been deaccessioned. There's car 206 on outdoor display at Electric City, car 209 on indoor display at PTM, and car 205, which is the only member of the class currently operational. Car 205 is also in the midst of a restoration project to return it to its Red Arrow appearance. On the whole, it seems likely that the parts from car 208 will do a great deal of good on car 205 and, perhaps, the other preserved Brill "Bullets."

*There are also two "Bullet" cars still around that were built for the Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville and later went to Bamberger: semi-derelict car 126, stored in Ogden, Utah, and car 127, stored in good - albeit incomplete - condition at SCRM.

New England News

A couple of pieces of interesting pieces of information have surfaced from New England. First, it seems SEPTA 618 is on its way to its new home at the Trolley Museum of New York. I've updated its ownership in the PNAERC roster because it's left Seashore, though it hasn't yet arrived in Kingston. The car should be a good match with TMNY, given that it comes with standard-gauge trucks originally off a PATH K-car, so it can be towed in operation at its new home.

And thanks go to Matthew Juergens from the Connecticut Trolley Museum, who passes along information about recent happenings there. The museum is currently in the process of repainting their two-axle Corbin steeplecab, E2. A photo of the recent progress is below, and I have updated the locomotive's status to "undergoing restoration." Thanks, Matthew!

Tarped Cars on Truck Trailers in the Northeast

Thanks to Bill Wall for supplying news and photos regarding the conveyance of New Jersey Transit 5221, a utility/line car built in 1912, to Branford today. The car was moved by Silk Road from its recent home at the Kinkisharyo plant in Piscataway, New Jersey, and was unloaded in East Haven.

Car 5221 was built by Russell in 1912 as a snow plow and freight motor for the Trenton Terminal Railroad (later Public Service Railroad, then Public Service Coordinated Transport) system in New Jersey. At some point it was rebuilt as a line car, and in that guise it stayed in service on the Newark subway until it was transferred off the property in 2009. The car bounced around: it went to the National Capital Trolley Museum for a while, then was at Lyons Industries in Pennsylvania for truck rebuilding c2016-2017, and afterward ended up in Piscataway. The photo above, from this blog, was taken around 2018, but in 2019 the car was tarped and put outside. (The four photos below were all taken by Bill Wall.)

For five years or so, the car looked like this, tarped with a shrink-wrap "boat tarp" next to the Kinkisharyo building.

But through whatever means, the car was acquired by Branford. Above, it's shown loaded on a trailer.

And these last two photos, taken today, show the car on the line at Branford.

This is only the second line car in Branford's collection, and their first double-truck line car. (Oddly enough, among the "three sisters" that started the traction preservation movement in New England - Seashore, Warehouse Point, and Branford - there are only six line cars preserved among them, and 5221 is one of only two that are double-truck cars.) Car 5221 is one of six intact cars from the PSCT system before the PCC era, and four of those cars are now preserved at Branford.

The second car on the move is shown below (apologies for the thumbnail-sized image, which is a screen grab from a video posted by Seashore). You'd be hard pressed to tell from the tarp, but this is the famous Berkshire Hills, the business car from the Berkshire Street Railway that is the only survivor from that storied system.

This car was built by Wason in 1903, retired way back in 1922, and sold in 1932 for use as a diner. Following a 1994 fire that caused substantial damage, the body was acquired by Seashore in 1995, where it has been stored ever since. The car is now en route to its new home at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, a transfer that has been planned for over a year. This is the second car on Seashore's "re-homing lists" to go to a new home; the first, MBTA line car 3283, also went to Shelburne Falls. The SFTM collection now totals five cars on PNAERC; Seashore's stands at 189 pieces; and the NJERHS is down to six cars while Branford is up one to 91 cars.

Roanoke Master Unit Changes Hands

News has come via Facebook (no log-in required, just "X" out of the pop-up) from the Roanoke Chapter NRHS that they have acquired Roanoke Railway & Electric 51 from the Seashore Trolley Museum. The car is shown above in an image from the announcement post.

Car 51 was built by Brill in 1929 as Virginia Electric Power 115 and originally it ran in Lynchburg. In 1937, it was sold to RR&E, where it operated for 10 years until it was retired. It was later a diner in Callaghan, Virginia, and was acquired in late 1991 or early 1992 by Seashore as part of the museum's "last round-up" body collecting spree. The car is in rough shape; the photos posted by the NRHS group indicate that its window posts were cut away on one side and it's got structural problems with the roof. It is, however, an undeniably historic car. The "Master Unit" wasn't tremendously successful, with only a handful of cities ordering them, but it was significant insofar as it sought to update streetcar design with the latest automotive trends. It was also an attempt to create an industry-standard car design.

Only four true "rubber stamp" Master Units survive today. Three are from Yakima, including two in complete condition and one that was abandoned in a forest for decades and had a tree fall on it; and then there's Roanoke 51. The Roanoke car is older than the Yakima cars and was built by Brill in Philadelphia, whereas the Yakima cars were built by American in St. Louis. The "true" Master Units are outnumbered in preservation by later, "modernized Master Unit" Brill cars built for Red Arrow and other systems.

Car 51 is the second car in Kennebunkport, after the "Berkshire Hills," awaiting transportation to a new home. I haven't updated car 51's ownership on PNAERC yet; I'll wait until the car has actually moved home to Virginia to do that. But hopefully this marks a new, positive chapter in the car's history.

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.

Whoops

A truly bizarre story has emerged from the Seashore Trolley Museum. They've accidentally scrapped one of their cars.

The car in question, shown above in photos taken this past March, was Waterville Fairfield & Oakland 60. One of about a dozen cars at Seashore hailing from Maine, it was originally built in 1923 by Brill for the Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway in Massachusetts as their car 400. In 1928, it was sold to the WF&O in Maine, where it operated until retirement in 1937. Its body came to Seashore in 1991 as part of the "Last Roundup" carbody collecting frenzy and it's been in storage since then. It was the last WF&O car and the last P&B car in existence, and was a moderately rare example of a double-truck Birney.

So, how do you accidentally scrap a car? Seashore emailed out a statement outlining the chain of events, which I've reproduced below for posterity. They brought in an outside company, evidently a scrapper, with an eye toward having the scrapper cut up Ottawa 825, which is on their "re-homing list." However, after consulting with the scrapper, they decided to put off this job because car 825 wasn't easily accessible to heavy equipment. And yet, museum volunteers evidently didn't get the word that the job had been put off; decided to invite the scrapper to cut up car 825 anyway; and then had the scrappers start on the wrong car. The result was that the scrapper had already started demolishing WF&O 60 by the time anyone realized something was amiss.

The museum is now stripping parts from the body and disposing of what's left. I've removed car 60 from the PNAERC list, leaving Seashore with 189 cars on the list. This particular car had presented a potential conundrum to Seashore; they've been rapidly deaccessing their sizable collection of deteriorated car bodies, of which this was clearly one. On the other hand, this particular car was also a part of the prized collection of Maine cars, making it a candidate to stay in the collection despite its condition. That decision is moot now.

The official statement from Seashore:

Dear Members of Our Valued Community,

I am reaching out to inform you of an unfortunate incident that occurred on Wednesday, July 24, which has affected our museum collection.

Due to the age and deterioration of some of the pieces in our collection, the decision was made by our Board of Trustees to de-accession specific cars that are beyond restoration so they can be offered through our re-homing efforts to other museums and hobbyists. After several months or years of pursuing another home for these items, the Curatorial Committee, authorized by the Board of Trustees, voted to move these cars to the campus scrap list. Our professional staff, along with Seashore volunteers or third-party contractors, would then manage the scrapping process.  We have policies in place for these activities, a series of checks and balances, to control how the cars in our collection are managed, the pace at which we seek to re-home an item, and steps in place for what needs to happen prior to scrapping a car in our collection before this work is completed. 

This year, the museum contracted a company we have used in the past to help us advance our car body scrapping efforts. In April 2024, upon review of the location of one car body in the scope of work, Ottawa 825, museum leadership and the contractor decided that we would not pursue this project with this contractor until other steps were taken by our yard crew to make the car body accessible to scrapped; the car body is currently not accessible to the needed machinery. These steps were communicated in writing by the contractor, and the timeline to pursue removing Ottawa 825 was pushed into fall 2024 to allow the volunteer-led departments involved in this process the time to complete this pre-work.

However, on July 24, without the knowledge of museum leadership, this contractor subcontracted directly with Seashore volunteers to scrap the Ottawa 825 car body. The contractor brought in equipment for another project the contractor was completing on campus and offered the equipment to these individuals to use to complete this work. 

Assuming this contractor had arranged this project with the museum's leadership, the subcontracted volunteers began what they thought was work to help the museum move forward on our scrapping initiatives.  The subcontracted volunteers did not confirm this work with our Executive Director, nor did they confirm the location of Ottawa 825 with our Executive Director, which are two of the steps listed in our scrapping policy. Several minutes into this work, the subcontracted volunteers realized that they had begun scrapping the wrong car body; instead of Ottawa 825, the team was in the process of scrapping Waterville 60.  Museum leadership was informed of the error after significant damage to the car's roof and vestibules had already been done.

The Curatorial Committee asked Restoration Shop staff and volunteers to assess the condition of Waterville 60 the following day; all reported that due to the car body's current location and condition, nothing within the museum's means can be done to safely continue preserving Waterville 60. The Curatorial Committee unanimously recommended to the Board of Trustees to de-accession Waterville 60 for immediate scrapping, and the Board of Trustees held an informational meeting on Friday July 26 and a follow-up email vote in accordance with our bylaws to do so. With the boards affirming vote, our Executive Director is now leading the efforts to remove Waterville 60, working with the contractor and other campus volunteers to come up with a plan for the safe removal of parts from the car body prior to completing the scrapping efforts.

Museum policy states that confirmation of a car’s demolition with leadership must be completed prior to taking any action. While this did not happen, leading to this loss to our collection of Waterville 60 and the added expense of needing to scrap the intended car, the issue has been addressed with those involved.  Reminders of this policy have been issued.  The museum will no longer be working with this contractor to scrap items in our collection or on our property.  We're also reviewing current museum policies for changes that may prevent a repeat of this event.

As valued members of our museum community, we wanted to share these details as you may have heard about the incident and we know you value the preservation of rail history as we all do.  This is a loss for our collection and historic transit preservation. While Waterville 60 was not one of the Maine trolleys listed in the National Register of Historic Places, nor has it ever received high enough priority within our collection to receive indoor storage, the car body is believed to be the last of its kind and is the only double truck Birney car in our collection.

We value the contributions of our volunteers and recognize that this museum’s operations would not be possible without their hard work, knowledge, and generosity with their time. The tremendous growth we have experienced over the past decade is a result of those of us who have worked together as a team to accomplish great things. Working alone or in silos is no longer a fit for our collaborative campus culture. This is a stark reminder that all of us need to work together to continue to move the museum and our collection forward; our Executive Director Katie Orlando and Director of Museum Operations Steve Berg must serve as the main contacts for all work taking place on our campus to prevent incidents like this from occurring again in the future.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Another Postcard from Kennebunkport

Bill Wulfert has sent more photos from Winterfest, held this past weekend at the Seashore Trolley Museum, with this batch including many of Seashore's more commonly photographed pieces. Enjoy!

One of the denizens of Town House Shop at Seashore is Bay State Street Railway 4175, an attractive semiconvertible built in 1914 by Laconia that later ran in Rhode Island and New Jersey. This car was the prototype for the replica that operates today in Lowell, Mass.

One of the cars in operation over the weekend was Claremont Railway 4, the museum's diminutive line car.

One of three North Shore Line interurban cars at Seashore, car 420 was built in 1928 as an open-platform observation car and later converted to a double-ended coach. It is currently out of service with a failed traction motor.

Fellow Highwood alum NSL 755 is a 1930 Standard product, shown here in both an exterior and an interior view.

Connecticut Company open car 303 was built by Brill in 1901 for the Winchester Avenue Railway. It's shown in Seashore's brand-new South Boston carbarn, a beautiful three-track, nine-berth structure that was just completed within the past few months.

One of Seashore's regular service stalwarts is ConnCo 1160, shown here, a 1906 Stephenson suburban car that was completely restored by the museum. It's one of only nine Stephenson cars preserved and one of just four in operation.

The next two images show Cleveland Railway 1227, which was one of the most recently completed of Seashore's famous frame-up restorations. Not only was this car received as a basket case, but it had been rebuilt by Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. Seashore did a lot of work to backdate it to its condition in the late 1910s.

There are three Chicago "Big Pullmans" preserved, and the only one not at IRM is CSL 225. It's currently out of service with a failed motor.

Chicago Transit Authority 1 was used as a propulsion equipment test car by General Electric after it was retired by the CTA. It's currently available.

DC Transit 1304 is a beautifully restored prewar PCC from the nation's capital. It's shown in the new South Boston carbarn. Unfortunately, at the moment it is out of service with a bad MG set.

Eastern Mass Street Railway 4387 is one of that system's distinctive suburban semi-convertible cars. It's been fully restored by Seashore but is currently out of service with a blown motor, I believe.

The most modern rapid transit cars at Seashore are MBTA 0622-0623, shown here on display, built in 1979 by Hawker-Siddeley. They were operational until recently but I'm not certain of their current status. I believe that due to track conditions, Seashore isn't running heavy interurbans or rapid transit cars on their main line.

MBTA 5159 is one of several snow plows at Seashore that were converted from Type 3 semi-convertibles built in 1908.

Bill snapped this photo of a distinctive Boston third rail beam, shown on one of the Cambridge-Dorchester subway cars.

The "City of Manchester" and Atlantic Shore Line 100 are certainly among the prides of the fleet at Seashore, both the result of major multi-year restoration efforts. ASL 100 has the added distinction of having run over the museum's right-of-way during its service career.

The centerpiece of Town House Shop at the moment is Portland-Lewiston 14, the "Narcissus," a 1912 Laconia-built interurban car that is the subject of a lengthy and involved restoration.

Don't get used to seeing SEPTA 618 at Seashore - it's heading to a new home at the Trolley Museum of New York sometime soon.

SEPTA 2278, aka "New Hampshire" since it was painted in Bicentennial colors in the 1970s, began life as Kansas City Public Service 781. It came to Seashore in 2012.

Twin City Rapid Transit 1267 is a beautifully restored standard car from Minnesota. Seashore restored it to its original "gate car" configuration, with an open rear platform and no passenger entry at the front. I'm not sure whether it's currently operational.

One of the photo lineups the museum set up was in front of the new South Boston barn with DC Transit 1304, featured earlier, and Toronto 2890, a 1923 Ottawa-built Peter Witt acquired in 2000 from Halton County. The Witt has been the subject of recent work but is not currently operational.

A true masterpiece of restoration, Wheeling Street Railway 639 is one of only two Cincinnati curve-siders in operation. It was restored - practically replicated - from the shell of a body and is one of the regular service cars at Seashore.

And to finish off, we'll add some property shots. Bill sent an exterior and an interior photo of Seashore's newest focus, the model railroad building. This was built by a sizable grant from one or two wealthy donors.

Here we are in the new South Boston carbarn, showing off features like the insulated walls, steel framing, wall-to-wall concrete and between-rails inspection pit. This replaces the older, smaller, and decidedly ramshackle South Boston barn, which was demolished a year or two ago.

And we'll finish with a couple of night photo shoots. First, the two operating ConnCo cars.

And here are 639, 1304, and 2890 in front of the new South Boston barn.