I've been having a discussion with someone and the question came up about the Reading Birney car 510 that had previously been at the Magee Transportation Museum in Bloomsburg, PA. Does anyone know the current status and location of the car today. I had heard it was sent to Detroit after Magee closed, but that was years (decades) ago. The car had been cosmetically painted as a Reading car with lettering and numbers, but I have seen photos of the car painted all yellow after the flood in 1972. I am assuming this was the same car.

Also, there was a swtichman's tower at the station area at Magee. Does anyone know the disposition of that piece?

Thanks in advance.

Joel Salomon

Check out the database on Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars

http://www.bera.org/pnaerc.html

Search under the "Only show cars currently or previously owned/operated by:" and scroll down to "Magee Trolley Museum"

It comes back with 10 records and lists where they are now.

Bob

Bob,

Reading 510 does not appear on the database as a former Magee car or former Reading car. I think this is why Joel is asking the question.

Wesley

I would get a hold of Joel Salomon. If anyone would know, it would be--

Ummmmm.........

Ooops.

This link to a Magee page on Berwick Railfan shows a listing for Reading car 509.

http://berwickrailfan.webs.com/Xtopastphotos/magee-traction-Page3.jpg

The link doesn't answer the original question but adds to the mystery.

Wesley

Reading 510 was last shown as belonging to the Detroit Citizens Railway in 1973. Lionel's new Reading trolley is numbered 509, btw...

510 was indeed at Magee, I came across an article in the Reading Eagle from July 20th, 1969, which does include a photo of the car.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 3418&hl=en

In The Museums of Harry Magee by Pat Parker (2004), the author mentions the Reading Birney as #510, but the car body is not listed on page 99 as part of the "Magee Collection." Instead the car is listed on page 113 as part of 'Extras Stored at the Museum.



Other "Extras" listed include Hershey Transit 4, PTC C-15 (discussed here http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37803&hilit=c15), and storage of IRT parlor car Mineola (IRT 3344).

Pat lists the disposition of the "collection" following the flood, but does not include Reading 510 or Hershey 4. A search of the PNAERC database also shows no listing for Reading 510 or Hershey 4.

Wesley

Take it from one who was there as an employee and volunteer from 1965to the auction in 1973 and beyond, Mrs. Parker's book has quite a few errors of fact and story.

Hershey 4, or what was left of it, was stored by the Middletown & Hummelstown (somewhere off-site) until sometime in the early 2000s when they apparently disassembled what remained.

As for Reading 510, this one is really a mystery and I've wondered for quite a while what became of the car. According to my records it went to Detroit Citizens Railway in 1973 but after that I've completely lost track of it. Somewhere I read that it may have been sold to one of the spaghetti restaurant chains but I've never seen anything concrete to support that. It was listed on the DCR roster in Dave Young's 1997 book "Veteran & Vintage Transit" but that doesn't necessarily mean it was still in Detroit at the time.

Here's another photo of the car at Magee, from joelance.com:

The mystery of Reading 510 deepens as I have this photo of Birney car 124, painted yellow. Looking very close, it has a roll sign with "Temple" indicated on it. I am assuming this is Reading Birney car 510, painted in this yellow color scheme before departing Bloomsburg. So why was the car painted this way and where is the car at today.

Like Frank, I have often wondered about the Reading Birney car body.

I am certain that the Hershey 4 is scrapped as when I saw t back in 1982, the car was in very poor shape, located along the M&H as Frank indicated. It was not owned by the M&H as far as i know. Unfortunately I do not have a digitized image of the car in 1982, still in 35mm slide format.

Joel Salomon

Here is a source noting Reading 510 may have made its way to Detroit:

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3395&hilit=detroit+citizens

Wesley

The one problem with the link you sent is that it was from back in 2002. It seems as though about one year later the trolley service was abandoned, replaced with those darn trolley buses for economic reasons. I just sent an E-mail to the Detroit Department of Transportation, if they ever get back to me I'll post what they know.

They got back to me very quick however, it was to tell me that the Public Relations guy is out of town until the 20th. Looks like we'll be waiting a bit.

This just in from a fellow RyPN'er regarding Reading Transit 510.



Now where is that Spaghetti Factory/Warehouse list???

Wesley