The irony is in how many cities are recreating electric, light rail transportation projects as a "novel" means of getting people around town in a clean, exhaust free, manner! I love those glass plate negatives of trolleys rumbling down city streets, or passing under arched trees in what was suburbia.

Rescuing this beautiful car seems like a fight worth fighting.

A recap of current projects at the ECTM:

TARS 651, which also spent some time as Five Mile Beach #24, was brought to the museum from ECTMA's Buckingham shop in 2017. The car body has undergone extensive restoration while work continues on her trucks.



Scranton Railway #324 was sold off in about 1941 and became a roadside diner. She was rediscovered in 2000 and acquired by the museum for restoration.








PTC #5205 is a 1923 Brill. The shop crew has replaced her side sheets and roof, and work continues on platform repairs.



Scranton Transit #505, a 1929 Osgood Bradley Electromobile, is undergoing heavy repair. Much of her steel framework has been patched or replaced and new bolsters and platform knees have been fabricated. The first of four Westinghouse 510A motors is out for rehab and bids are being sought for the next round of work; expect some more good news around November of this year.

Some other WB color photos

To depart from the topic, someone mentioned the steam locomotive in the background of the Cohen Scrap Yard photo. Does anyone have an idea about its possible identity? It looks like it could be an 0-4-0.

Bernie

Bernie -

My guess from what can be seen of her, would be a logging company engine, perhaps a 2-6-2 with low drivers. BUT, I'm not sure whether logging companies would have still been active in Pennsylvania in the 1940's. Your opinion of her being an 0-4-0 might be a better guess. Perhaps someone could enlarge that portion of the photo, so we could get a better look at her.

Les

Les,

Railroad logging was pretty well finished by that time. It had to be from some industry or coal company. I tried enlarging it but it went fuzzy plus the drive wheels are obscured. Over 50 years ago I walked up that track and saw the remains of lokey boilers. I purchased a locomotive throttle arm, reverse lever and quadrant and some mine car journal boxes. They just put them on the scale and I paid by the pound. They are now long gone.

Bernie

Bernie -

You are, I'm sure, right about railroad logging being done by then. Might one of those type of engines have survived on a short line or industrial operation in the area? The engine looks a bit too "bulky" to me, to be an 0-4-0. But perhaps an 0-6-0? Someone might know the history of rail operations in 1948 in that area. Certainly companies were dieselizing in that time period.

Your acquiring junk yard "artifacts" is interesting. I recall a couple of somewhat similar incidents. One of which was of a builders plate found laying in the dirt on the former property of a scrap dealer. The guy who found it had put it on display. I looked the serial number up and discovered it was from a Wabash Railroad 0-6-0! I then purchased a photo of that engine from M. D. McCarter and gave it to him to display next to the builders plate.

Les

Thankfully the ECTM hasn't fallen into the pit of "fantasy" restorations (save for P&W 164, which is still wearing its as-received East Troy paint scheme). A Boston car would fit well into their collection of Northeast transit as-is.

They appear to have reached a point where space is at a premium but they have a number of platform cars with no boarding platforms and single end cars with no wye or loop on the line, so I wouldn't discount a trade. They could use a second center door car more than anything.

Cars that I am guessing are part of the permanent collection would be 76, 80, 324, 505, 46, 102, 5205, 651, and 801.

I think that Boston St. Rwy. Ass'n. has a Boston Type 5 car in Guilford, Conn., a bit closer to Scranton than Seashore is.

Well, Boston Type 5's have Standard trucks; the NEPA clones (both types of ends) had Brill trucks. Besides, 790's a W-B car as well as a Pottsville car.

Phil Mulligan

I imagine she is the last surviving East Penn car as well?

That is a stupid idea, take a Boston car that is on public display in it's home town protected from the elements and bring it to some other state to imatate one of there cars.

I'm not sure I'd want a full-size Boston Type 5, but how about a display of photos or models showing how you can take a good design from somewhere else and adapt it to your circumstances, which would help explain why a car like 790 is significant to the region (3 cities in NEPA used them).

Phil Mulligan

I get 4 systems: Reading, East Penn (Pottsville), Shamokin & Mt. Carmel, & Wilkes-Barre.

Good catch, Art. Shamokin & Mt. Carmel did also have Type 5 clones; they evidently went to Columbus OH.

This makes 4 properties in the NEPA Anthracite Coal Region with these cars. It also adds yet another County: Northumberland. Interpretation can have a field day with this.


Phil Mulligan