Let's Work on a PCC

Following on the heels of the return of the Terrible Trolley, more PCC restoration news has come to light. It appears that working on restoring PCC cars is all the rage these days!

First up is DC Transit 1430, a wartime (prewar-style) car built in 1944 by St. Louis for the Washington, DC system. One of only five Washington PCC cars still in 1) the US, and 2) its original form, and the only member of its series extant, the car was retired in 1962 and made its way to the Rockhill Trolley Museum. It remained there, stored outdoors, until 1997, when it went back to home territory at the National Capital Trolley Museum. NCTM volunteers have now started working on the car, starting with cleaning up and repainting the interior, so its status has been changed to "undergoing restoration." Thanks to Wesley Paulson for the update on this car. The above photo is from here.

Next comes San Francisco Municipal Railway 1153, which was built by St. Louis in 1946 for the hometown streetcar system as St. Louis Public Service 1742. It went to Muni in 1957 and upon retirement in 1982 it was acquired by the Western Railway Museum. It has been stored at WRM ever since, mostly as a static display piece as far as I can tell, but that looks to be changing. As shown in the above photo (from here), car 1153 has been brought into the WRM shop for mechanical work. It is receiving a rebuilt MG set and possibly other work. Its status, too, has been updated to "undergoing restoration." There are 21 cars from this series on the PNAERC list, but most are in rough shape - I'd opine that car 1153 is in better shape than all but two or three of the others.

And finally we have this, which is just a thumbnail (I can't find the original image, posted earlier this week) purporting to show SEPTA 2336, one of the system's modernized "PCC III" cars. This car has been undergoing another overhaul for something like a year and a half, but the novel development is that it is supposedly being painted in "Gulf Oil" colors rather than in traditional PTC green and cream like the rest of the PCC III fleet. Time will tell whether it rolls out of the shop in this livery. Although the "Gulf Oil" livery is among the more distinctive applied to PCC cars, only one car has heretofore been repainted in these colors.

Three of a Kind

Thanks to Jacob Wiczkowski for alerting me to this post from the Western Railway Museum a few days ago. Their third BART cars has arrived! Following the arrival of an "A2" car in August and a "B2" car in September, they've now acquired "C1" car number 329. This car has led a less eventful existence than the other two, never having been renumbered or rebuilt, and is the only one of the trio to retain its as-built DC motors. It was built by Alstom in 1987 as a flat-end motor car, a way for BART to adopt a fleet more adaptable to changing needs for train lengths when compared with the original fleet, which consisted entirely of blind motors and "end cars" that couldn't easily be run mid-train.

This likely completes BART's presence on the PNAERC roster, at least for a while. I don't believe the system has retained any of its own first-generation cars for historic purposes, and certainly none of the giant 5'6"-gauge cars have gone to any other museums. With this arrival, WRM has a total of 69 cars on the PNAERC list, with 2,088 cars on the list in all.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

The Western Railway Museum is acquiring three Bay Area Rapid Transit cars from the system's just-retired "legacy" fleet, and the second of these three cars arrived yesterday. BART 1834 has a pretty interesting history. It's a "B2" class car, and the "B" indicates that it's a blind motor (aka, no cab) while the "2" indicates that it was rebuilt around 2000 with IGBT inverter control and AC motors. However, that was its second rebuilding - when it was new, it was "A" car 120 and was the same type as BART 1164 (then numbered 164), already preserved at WRM. It was rebuilt without its cab sometime around 1980, I think. The car's most unique claim to fame, though, is that in September 1972, it was ridden by President Richard Nixon. So, there you go.

The above photo of car 1834 leaving San Francisco comes from a post on WRM's Facebook page, and it appears that the car has now been placed on display indoors at the museum, coupled to car 1164. It's been added to the PNAERC list but I'm still looking for more information, primarily rebuild dates - both for when it went from an A car to a B car and for when it went from a B to a B2 car.

I believe car 1834 is only the second blind motor on the PNAERC list, after PATH 143, and the first to be preserved with a matching cab car. This acquisition brings the size of WRM's fleet on PNAERC to 68 cars (just six shy of SCRM!) and brings the overall PNARC list to 2,086 cars.

BART Comes to Rio Vista

The Western Railway Museum is growing its collection again, and this time, it's acquired one of the most distinctive and unusual pieces of electric railway equipment in preservation.

Today saw the arrival in Rio Vista of Bay Area Rapid Transit 1164, the first BART car to enter preservation (or, at least, enter private preservation - I'm not certain whether BART has formally set aside any of its own first-generation fleet for historic reasons). Car 1164 is an "A2" car that started life as an "A" car, one of the unmistakable shovel-nosed, single-window giants so closely associated with the BART system. It's a Rohr car that bears some similarity to the 1000-series WMATA subway cars already on the PNAERC list, but of course it's the first piece of equipment on the list that's 5'6" gauge and also the first piece designed for 1000vDC traction power. A 2002 rebuilding (hence the "2" in "A2") saw its original DC motors and chopper control replaced with AC equipment.

This particular car was used as a testing car on the Hayward Test Track for a time, which gives it a unique history. WRM posted on their Facebook page about the move, which is where the above photos came from. They included a shot of the car already on display in the Jensen Car House, where the museum has laid some dual-gauge track, though they used standard-gauge "dollies" to switch the car around. They're also planning to acquire a "B" car and a "C" car in the near future to represent all the major types of first-generation BART rolling stock. Kudos to them for accomplishing a preservation project with, shall we say, some unique challenges!

New Type of LRV Preserved

The Western Railway Museum is the proud new owner of a 1995-vintage Los Angeles light rail vehicle, class P2020 car 164, shown above in an image from the WRM Facebook page. It arrived late last week and they've already put power to it, though I'm not sure whether it's "motivating" yet.

This is the second car from the Los Angeles light rail system to be preserved at a railway museum; car 144 was acquired by Southern California Railway Museum, nee Orange Empire, in 2018. For five years now, car 144 has been the newest piece of equipment on the entire PNAERC list, but of course now it's been supplanted by car 164. WRM's new car is very similar to the type P865 car at SCRM, but the 1995 order from Nippon-Sharyo for these cars included some additional automated train operation functionality.

WRM is also keeping up a steady pace of acquisitions - since 2020 they've now added five cars to their collection, more than any other trolley museum during that period. They also now have the distinction of being the only museum with three different types of LRVs (Boeing-Vertol LRV, Siemens U2, and Nippon-Sharyo P2020), and the only museum with LRVs from three different cities (San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles).

Three streetcars acquired by Western Railway Museum

Many thanks to David Johnston for confirming that the Western Railway Museum has acquired three streetcar bodies formerly owned by the (now defunct) Friends of Light Rail group in Sacramento. Described in detail in this post from December, the three cars are Pacific Gas & Electric 18, a rope brake streetcar; Sacramento Northern 27, an "Elverta scoot" suburban car; and Pacific Gas & Electric 65, a "Christmas present" lightweight streetcar. The three cars are shown at their new home, under tarps, in the above photo sent by David. Congratulations to WRM on saving these three historic cars.

A fourth car, Pacific Gas & Electric 36, was in extremely poor condition and is currently being dismantled in Sacramento. As noted in the December post linked above, it's identical to car 35, which is fully restored and still safe and sound at the Sacramento light rail shops. This car has been removed from the PNAERC list, thus closing out Friends of Light Rail as an ownership group.

WRM acquiring a trio of California electric cars

Many thanks to David Johnston for sending along the news that the Western Railway Museum is acquiring three electric cars local to its area. The cars have been under the purview of an organization called Friends of Light Rail and are stored indoors on the property of the Sacramento Regional Transit light rail system. However FoLR, which sounds like it was kind of an ephemeral organization to begin with, has essentially melted away, so the cars were made available to WRM.

The first car being acquired is Pacific Gas & Electric 18, shown above. As far as I know, the history of this car is a bit of a mystery insofar as its builder and vintage are unknown. It began life as a California car and was later enclosed, as were many Sacramento cars. I believe it's similar to PG&E 14, currently preserved at WRM. These two cars, 14 and 18, have the unusual distinction of being the only "rope brake" cars on the PNAERC roster.

Next up is Sacramento Northern 27, shown here, a suburban California car built in 1908 by St. Louis for the Northern Electric. It was used in "Elverta Scoot" service between Chico and Elverta (more info here). It's the oldest SN electric car preserved and is a unique piece of equipment among the extant SN fleet.

Finally, we have Pacific Gas & Electric 65, a lightweight "Christmas present car" built in 1929 by American for Sacramento. This car is identical to PG&E 63, already preserved at WRM, and the museum tentatively plans to ultimately restore whichever of the two cars is assessed to be in better condition.

There's one additional car stored as part of the FoLR collection: Pacific Gas & Electric 36, shown here, is a large California car built by American in 1913. However it's not going to be preserved for two reasons: first of all, it's in extremely poor condition and its body is collapsing; second, identical sister car 35 is preserved in fully (and beautifully) restored condition in Sacramento as a representative of the type.

Speaking of Pacific Gas & Electric 35, David also sent along photos of that car, shown below. Car 35 was restored in the 1980s by Fred Bennett for the San Jose light rail system, and given their location, the car was given a faux paint job to represent "San Jose Railroad 129" - a car that never existed. However in 1999 the car was sent back home to Sacramento, where it has been stored in good condition - though largely unused - in its San Jose garb. (I have seen early-2000s photos of it lettered PG&E 35, but those may have been stickers or magnets used for a one-time event.)

Muni rail grinder operates

Per this post on Facebook (no log-in required), the Western Railway Museum has returned its Muni rail grinder, SFMR 0109, to operational condition following a 30-year period out of service. The car's PNAERC record has been appropriately updated.

I'm not personally very familiar with 0109, but it's certainly a unique piece. It's one of only three surviving ex-Market Street Railway work cars. It's also one of only a dozen preserved rail grinders on the PNAERC list, and may (now) be the only operational rail grinder in a U.S. trolley museum.

Kennecott Copper locomotive runs

The image above is a frame grab from a video posted yesterday on Facebook here (no log-in required) by the Western Railway Museum. The video shows the first operation in many years of Kennecott Copper 700, a huge articulated-truck steeplecab built in 1927 by GE. The WRM post says that the locomotive still needs a bit of work but it sounds like their plan is to put it into revenue service. KCC 700's status on the list has thus been updated from "displayed inoperable" to "operated occasionally."

This is a pretty unusual piece of equipment to see operating. It's the only one of the nine preserved Kennecott Copper electric locomotives that's operational; most of the others aren't even close and/or aren't located at museums with live overhead. It's the biggest operational steeplecab in an American museum by far. And it's one of only two articulated-truck steeplecabs currently operational (the other is much older and smaller). Kudos to the WRM crew on getting this unusual piece going.

San Diego 502 moves to Rio Vista

 

Many thanks to Bill Wulfert, who forwarded me some photos showing the move of San Diego Electric Railway 502 to the Western Railway Museum. I don't have permission to post those photos publicly, so the above shot of the car taken within the last few years is from Railfan & Railroad. This is the culmination of a fundraising effort, largely online I believe, held by WRM over the past year or two to purchase and move this car.

SDER 502 was part of San Diego's first order for PCC cars and was among the earliest orders for PCC cars; of production PCC cars in preservation (say that eight times fast!), only Brooklyn 1001 and Chicago 4021 are from earlier orders, though El Paso 1517 started life as SDER 501 and would have been built alongside 502. A total of 13 cars from this order were preserved, actually, due to many of San Diego's cars finding a second life in El Paso that kept them around for decades after most air-electric PCC cars had gone to scrap.

Car 502 became El Paso 1500 in 1950 and ran in that city into the 1970s, being stored after the system there shut down. In 1986 the car returned home and to the ownership of the San Diego Electric Railway Association. Unfortunately during its time in San Diego it was damaged by fire, and in 1996 the car was sold to Tahoe Valley Lines and moved to northern California. It was owned by TVL until this year. It is the only air-electric PCC cars in the WRM collection, though it does join slightly newer "patent evasion" streamliner Muni 1003 which has many similarities to early PCC cars.

Western Railway Museum updates

A visit to the Western Railway Museum this past weekend allowed me to update the status of a number of cars there. I wasn't able to tour the entire museum but I did get a quick tour through the new (well, within the last decade) barn. Construction of this building has allowed a number of cars previously in dead storage to be placed on public display.

Sacramento Northern 62 is now under restoration in the museum's shop. It is having running gear work done and being repainted in authentic white-and-blue colors among other things.

Key System 271, the museum's first car, is also undergoing restoration. It is having its platforms rebuilt.

Salt Lake Garfield & Western 306, an open trailer from the Saltair route, is now on public display rather than in storage.

Pacific Electric 457 is also now on public display.

Richmond Shipyard Railway 563 has been cosmetically restored and is on public display alongside sister car 561.

Interurban Electric Railway 602 has been put on trucks and placed on public display.

Kennecott Copper 700, formerly stored outside in an out-of-the-way location, is now on public display in the new barn.

Kennecott Copper 771 was formerly listed as "stored operable" but has been changed to "inoperable" due to some vandalism that has damaged the unit's control equipment.

Sacramento Northern 1019 has been placed on public display.

Portland Traction 4001 has been changed to "operated often" as its restoration has been completed and the car has been put into regular service.

First blog post

As I write this post, the new and improved PNAERC site is in beta test mode. The site's webmaster, Jeff Hakner, has completely redesigned the backend of the site and from now on we will be able to make changes to any listing at any time. I am going through and correcting any data that got mangled during the data transfer, after which I will be going back through the blog again to update and correct photo and video links.

I'm also making changes and updates, which going forward will be the raison d'etre for this blog. Today I added two recently-preserved cars to the list, both Duewag U2 LRV's from San Diego. Car 1017 was acquired earlier this year by the Western Railway Museum while car 1008 was acquired by Orange Empire. Both have been added to the PNAERC list, joining cars 1018 and 1019 which were already there.

Help needed: I am still looking for mechanical information on these San Diego U2 cars to fill in the gaps, so any assistance with this is appreciated!