Newly operational cars

This past weekend I was at the Illinois Railway Museum for the museum's annual Members Day operations and there was some equipment that ran for the first time at the museum and/or for the first time in many years. Milwaukee streetcar 972 operated for the first time since 1999 and the first time in revenue service since perhaps 1978. Chicago elevated gate car 24, which is nearing the end of a complete restoration which includes back-dating to its 1914 condition, operated as a motor for the first time since it suffered a motor flash-over while operating to IRM under power over the North Shore Line in 1958 (it was used as a control trailer during the 1970s though). And the first public operation of Illinois Central "Highliner" double-deck MU cars took place with cars 1630 and 1637 making a few short demonstration trips. I suspect that this is the first-ever museum operation of a double-deck electric car in this country - though only if you exclude European cars that have been imported.

Another CTA car added

The latest addition to the blog is CTA 2347, a 1969 Budd-built 2200-series car that was discovered to be in storage in Fairfield, Ohio. It's owned by Jungle Jim's International Market, which seems like a pretty odd place judging from the website. They bought it in 2014 but apparently haven't put it to use in any capacity, as it's currently stored at an RV lot just a block up the road. You can see it on an aerial photo here. Cars like this are only kind of preserved, but it appears to be intact (rather than hollowed out in some way) so for the moment at least it's on the list.

Miscellaneous changes

There haven't been any major changes recently, but a few minor ones have been made relating to restoration progress at a couple of different museums. First, National Capital has released a photo of single-trucker 522, which has recently been cosmetically restored. More information can be found here. It had been on a Brill 21E (modified for rail grinding use) but Baltimore Streetcar Museum traded them a correct older-type Lord Baltimore truck for the car. In turn, car 4662 at BSM is supposed to have a Brill 21 but had been placed on a Lord Baltimore shop truck many decades ago. I'm not positive whether 4662 will receive 522's Brill 21 (confused yet?) but I suspect that it will get some sort of 21 truck.

And in other news, the Illinois Railway Museum has gotten "L" car 24 running for the first time since 1958. See here for photos. The car had formerly been listed on PNAERC as Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 but the restoration project which is now in its later stages has backdated the car to its earlier owner and number, Northwestern Elevated Railroad 24.

IC "Highliners" added

I've added a total of fourteen (!) recently-preserved "Highliner" double-deck MU cars from the Illinois Central's Chicago suburban electrification to the roster. Of those, ten have been acquired by the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas for use as classroom cars. They were moved to Texas in early 2016 and are currently in storage, though I'm not certain whether they're at the Frisco site or stored somewhere nearby. The other four cars were acquired in mid-2015 by the Illinois Railway Museum, which intends to retain two and scrap the others for parts. Which ones will be kept has not yet been determined, and for the time being all four are stored on the IRM campus. As of a couple of weeks ago, work had begun on inspecting these cars and making them operational. Car 1534 was the first to be inspected and had the honor of becoming the first "Highliner" to run in preservation (as far as I know, though there are some in Boone that are potential runners).

CTA "High performance car" acquired by Seashore

Today's news involves a new acquisition of an old car. Chicago Transit Authority car number 1, which for many years has been stored moribund on the property of General Electric in Erie, PA, was recently purchased by the Seashore Trolley Museum. Today it arrived at Kennebunkport courtesy of Silk Road Transportation. This car is the last of the "high performance" 6000-series cars that the CTA owned, a sub-group of eight cars (four single units and two married pairs) that received modifications for high speed operation. It was sold to GE in the 1970s for use as a test car and was later fitted with more modern control equipment, but the body is largely unchanged from its later Skokie Swift configuration, complete with rooftop bow trolleys. The car will need quite a bit of work but it's a unique artifact and it's commendable that Seashore has stepped up to see it preserved.

Missing MU car

Today's "mystery car" is one of the many Lackawanna MU cars that have found their way into preservation. In this case, I'm wondering about car 4308 (Pullman, 1920) which was last seen at the Michigan Air-Line Railway in Walled Lake, MI northwest of Detroit in 2010. Supposedly the car was sold around that time via Ozark Mountain but I have been unable to figure out who bought it or where it went. As always, information is much appreciated.

12/6/2023 UPDATE: This website has a roster of Michigan Air-Line that says car 4308 was never used in service, but rather was a parts source, and was scrapped in 2010. Since that fits with the (scant) information I've been able to dig up, I'm going to say this mystery is solved and the car has been scrapped.

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.