Yes, thanks for the kind words on the SS 68. It does run and is 'complete' except for details only I would notice and continue to plug away at.

As for IRM bodies, nobody has mentioned the restoration of CSL 3142 which was essentially a motorless seatless empty shell, now running in regular service.

And maybe two more chicken coops, the Kankakee car, and the Tri Cities car.

Dave, I applaud your efforts. I only wish I had the beginnings of metal working skills and could show the confidence and results you have. In fact, in general, welding and fab skills are a 'special event' at IRM, the exception being the steam dept. So, what are your rates??

On the other hand, I do not back away from anything made of wood or any complicated joinery. With jigs and a little imagination, I bet we could produce almost any wood member, or trim piece needed. The stuff we have turned out oftem causes visitors to shake their heads in wonderment, just as welding and hot riveting steel body repairs, cause me to swoon.

Bob Kutella

Bob, the jigsaw puzzle jointery in all-wood curved clerestory roofed cars drives me batty - good thing we all play to our strengths. Regrettably, my boomer days seem to be over due to family responsibilities, but if you wish to send a chicken coop to GA or NC I can gladly rebuild it for you.

dave

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory, I recall this car as being of Maguire-Cummings manufacture. Perhaps I read this in "The Interurban Era" by William D. Middleton along time, long time ago.

Great thread...

First of all, I want to continue the compliments for Bob's work on Sand Springs 68. I had a chance to ride in her on IRR Museum's members day... with Bob at the controller

Who has chicken coops which are now operating? Who has chicken coops in process? (assuming a chicken coop is a car reduced to a shed, house or building, without trucks or other hardware that defines it as a railroad car...)

In the West Orange Empire has a double truck birney and a Bamburger Bullet which have gone from bodies to street cars, but have yet to run. There are lots more bodies out back.

The Bay Area Electric Railroad Museum has their Petaluma car, a Pennisular Railway (San Jose Area) and a East Bay Transit car, all running in regular service. Again, more bodies available

The San Jose Trolley Barn group has done at least 4 cars, one from San Jose, one from Santa Cruz and a Birney, as well as a "flat kit" horse car.

The Carter group has done a 1880 box car and a 1882 passenger car. We have a 1885 coach which is in process, work done by Henry Sorensen. We have more bodies out back...

The Nevada State Railroad museum has a box car which was once a shed.

What else is out there?

Amazing! I have never seen this long a thread on a traction subject.

It is interesting to me that metalworking skills seem to be much harder to find than woodworking skills. I guess that we at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum have a rare person in Justin Skrbin, our car restoration contractor. And he is only 26.

As far as the fate of 103 is concerned, as was pointed out the two museums that would be likely to want the car already have a complete sister car. At one time, Seashore in Maine wanted one of everything, but they seem to be more realistic lately. The suggestion to keep it as a cabin was made. This has the advantage of not having to locate the trucks, motors and myriad of smaller parts needed for an operating restoration, not to mention the work of installing everything and the piping and wiring needed.

Another possibility would be to make it into a "trolley diner" as were common in the 30's and 40's (a few are still around) and use it for refreshment service at a museum.

With regard to Randy's question, I can think of "chicken coop" restorations at Seashore, Halton County in Ontario, and Rockhill Trolley Museum in Pennsylvania, as well as one done years ago at the Ohio Railway Museum. Specific car numbers escape me at the moment.

During a cross-country trip last month, I rode a former chicken coop (York Ry. 163) at Rockhill and saw another (Hot Springs 50) at Ft. Smith that should be running next year.

This is a very interesting thread. It would be fascinating to know how many chicken coops have been restored back to operating trolleys.

The Rockhill Trolley Museum, in Rockhill Furnace, Pa (next to the East Broad Top narrow gauge Railroad) has York Railways (PA) 163 in operation. The car is a 1924 Brill curveside car of which only five were constructed.

York Railways stopped their trolley operation on February 4, 1939 and 163 was then used as a summer home until 1972 when Hurricane Agnes flooded the car and the owners donated the car to the museum. Amazingly, all five Brill curveside cars survived and were used as summer homes. Car 326 was scrapped and many parts from that car were used to restore 163.

Car 163 was returned back to service in 1989, 50 years after it had last operated in York. Volunteers spent 17 years of volunteer labor restoring the car back to service. It has been in museum service longer than it had operated in York. More information can be found on the museum's website www.rockhilltrolley.org

Joel Salomon

"What else is out there?
_________________
Randy Hees"

Amazingly some great work has been done in a lot of areas. In the 70's I believe the benchmark was set by Seashore and the City of Manchester.

More recently, maybe Jim V can update us on the work in Minnesota, and of course East Troy has operated the 26, which was a VERY extensive project costing well over $100,000.

Again, at IRM, CSL 9020 has been cosmetically restored and placed on the correct trucks while it previously existed as a body only at a carbarn, as a storage shed. Also in Chicago history, Frank Hicks, who posts here, has made a very presentable cosmetically restored exhibit from an experimental PCC, CSL 4001 - also salvaged from a south side carbarn in Chicago.

Of course we all dream and have future plans, but discussing those here in much detail would probably fill pages. The results speak for themselves.

I am sure there are more, and we ought to broaden this to include other hopeless cases. Did not Niles Canyon bring back an exquisite passenger car, Wiscasset doing rolling stock including a new tank car? And the many reboilered, or even re-tendered steam locomotives surely rank as similar successes and order of magnitude projects.

Bob Kutella

Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, in Shelburne, MA has resurrected car No 10 to operating condition after she was discovered hiding behind a barn in 1998, and being used as a tool shed. The car was built by Wason Mfg of Springfield, Mass in 1896.


Nice after restoration photo:
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... y%20Museum
More info at: http://www.sftm.org/index.html

National City and Otay car #1. Half a carbody when the job started. It is imperfect, having had minimal documentary information and a starvation budget, but the results are pleasing.

dave

Yes, the WW&F Ry Museum recently acquired this original B&SR Socony tank. The plan is to restore the tank and build a reproduction B&SR no 14, 21 or 22 to go under it. It will be used in fire train service.

Photo: Marcel Levesque

Stephen -

Of all of the "chicken coop/sheds" restored to service, is Shelburne Falls museum's #10 the only one now operating on the original right-of-way where she actually ran in service?

Les

That definitely would be interesting, though I guess it would depend partly on your definition of "chicken coop." Two cars cited elsewhere in this thread, Sand Springs 68 and Chicago 3142, were acquired more-or-less as hulks but had kept their original trucks (minus motors). Operational restorations of chicken coops I can think of offhand, in no particular order:

"City of Manchester," often regarded as the first big chicken coop restoration, and Wheeling 639, nearing completion, both at Seashore
Atlanta 948 at Branford, nearing completion
Chicago & West Towns 141 at IRM, nearing completion
Petaluma & Santa Rosa 63 and Peninsular 52, both at Rio Vista
York Railways 163 at Rockhill
Phoenix 116 at Arizona St Ry Mus (limited operation only)
Nelson 23 and BCER 400 at Nelson Electric Tramway Society
Duluth 78 and TCRT 1239, both at MSM
San Jose 73, 124 and 143, all at Kelley Park Trolley
Charlotte 85, at Charlotte Trolley
Sheboygan 26, at East Troy
Fort Smith 224 and Hot Springs 50, nearing completion, both at Fort Smith Trolley Museum
London 23 at Halton County
Shelburne Falls 10 at Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum
Columbus 703 and CD&M 501, both at Worthington
West Penn 728, private ownership (limited operation only)
...plus one or two cars in Edmonton, though my knowledge of their collection is extremely limited

So what did I miss? :-)

Does a pigeon coop count? That's what happened to Scranton's Wildwood open car 24 after it stopped being a summer cottage on a sawdust filled lake. When its restoration is complete, I propose a contest: "Guess the original part"!

Key System streetcar #352 at Western Railway Museum was restored to operation with Japanese trucks, motors, and other mechanical parts.

fk