I came across this story in the local Northeast Los Angeles blog and thought it might be of interest:

https://www.theeastsiderla.com/2016/06/ ... -70-years/

This Birney served the Angeleno Heights neighborhood's relatively short shuttle line from downtown a couple of miles away from roughly the '20s through the '40s. The hilly neighborhood near Dodger Stadium is one of LA's most historic, with the city's largest concentration of Victorians, often used as filming locations.

Having lived in the neighborhood ("LA's first suburb") for about 20 years, I've been following this since the car was first offered to the neighborhood following the death of a member of the Electric Railway Historical Association, who had stored it in his yard for many years.

It's easy to see the attraction of a restored historic streetcar line in this neighborhood, though the community's response was mixed when the project was proposed a little more than 10 years ago. Some in the community were concerned about the safety of children or the unsightliness of the additional overhead wires among the existing tangle of spaghetti.

Unfortunately, following the original flurry of interest (and free backyard storage), a fair amount of money was spent on storing the car at an RV storage facility. It seems like overdue storage fees are the gofundme page's purpose.

https://www.gofundme.com/w45p63xg

To round things out, here's a 2004 LA Times story covering the original plan of restoring the car and refurbishing existing (paved over) trackage:

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jun/12 ... -trolley12