I don't know if anyone is interested in the street railways of this Alabama city, but there are at least 100 or more in the August 2006 pages of the ABPR. They range from the steam dummy era to trolley busses, with some in color. A good historic collection if you're interested. I don't know if any Birmingham trolleys survived or not.

http://abpr2.railfan.net/august06/

Maybe need a better link. This one delivered me to an index page with no clue as to what any of the 5000 or so images might be,

Bob Kutella

Quick partial answer, some PCCs went to Toronto, Ont. in the 1950s, and 13 of them went to Philadelphia, Penna., in 1975. I don't know what happened next.

To my knowledge, not a single piece of equipment from the Birmingham system has survived, which is quite surprising considering that it lasted as late as it did and was virtually a rolling museum. The last Birmingham car I know to have existed was a PCC, BER #816/TTC #4716, which was located on a farm in Ontario until it was scrapped in 2004. It was badly rusted out from years of Toronto road salt (see below, from Dave's Rail Pix).

For a while it looked like Birmingham was on the fast track to build and operate a vintage trolley line.

http://www.heritagetrolley.org/planBirminghamRTOL3.htm

Alas, further information on this plan via web searches has been nil. Anybody from that part of the world have fresh info?

Sloan

The images are in the Aug 16 index. The 10th frame is a color image of a PCC with the entrance doors open. On the steps, you can just make out "watch [your step]" and "colored".

So far, I have gotten through August 1-12, 2006 and have seen 10-15 photos of Birmingham trolleys on most every thumbnail page. I tried the search feature with "Birmingham electric" to refine the links a bit, but was not very successful. I just posted a general link to the August 2006 pages as I figured if anyone was really interested they could go through the thumbnails themselves and find the photos they wanted. The ABPR is a great resource, but one has to dedicate some effort to using it and record where you see something or it is lost again.

I'm not sure what the status is, but I think it's a dead issue for now. I don't think the county has the money. They can't even keep the buses running! They do run a tired trolley around downtown.

I read a book about a year ago on the history of the Birminham Electric Railways. It was quite comprehensive and showed the disposition of many of the cars when service ended. It had some great pictures also.

Bad news: I can't remember the name of the book.

Good news: We have it in our library at the Heart of Dixie RRM. I'll try to dig it up this Saturday when I'm down there.

Bill

Just had a brain wave.....

I think this was the book; Alvin W. Hudson and Harold E. Cox, Street Railroads of Birmingham, (Forty Fort, PA: Harold E. Cox, 80 Virginia Terrace, 18704) I'll still look for it in the library Saturday.

I guess one has to search for Birmingham Street Railroads!

Also, here's a link to the Bham library on line collection of B'hm RR pics:
http://bplonline.cdmhost.com/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/p4017coll6&CISOBOX1=Railroads

I Checked Hudson/Cox book, Street Railways of Brmingham and don't see where any cars survived in Birmingham. As stated above, the last cars operated in B'ham were the PCCs. The last car to run in Bham ran just before midnight 4-18-1953 and ended it's run early in the morning of the 19th. The cars, in almost new condition, were all sold to Toronto and later resold to Philadelphia as stated in a previous post.

Many earlier cars were scrapped in the 30's and 40's or "sold for scrap" according to the book. Maybe there is one hiding in a scrap yeard around here, but I've not heard of any.