Anybody know the background (beyond the description) of this car, and is it worth the effort to save it? For once, this one looks like it was taken care of fairly well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1916-READING-BRILL-TROLLEY-CAR-BUNGALOW_W0QQitemZ170138755371QQihZ007QQcategoryZ71011QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is one of several such car bodies in eastern central Pennsylvania; another is at Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park near Elysburg/Bloomsburg (ex-Shamokin & Mt. Carmel, as I recall).

Factor in lack of trucks and motors and seats. If you had a boatload of money, you could save it, but replicating the car from scratch might be easier and more feasible.

You're right, but it's also had a door cut into one side and judging from the interior photos the other side is missing several window posts. It would be an awfully big project for anyone; I think even Seashore has yet to restore a carbody with this much structural modification.

Actually, the thought had occurred to me that it would make an EXCELLENT exhibit for a museum of what happened to street cars AFTER their useful lives, not unlike the "garden coach" exhibit at NRM in York. No question full on restoration to a trolley would probably take years, even if you had the money and the parts. As a static exhibit on how many of these survived and had useful lifes that often existed longer than their operating ones; now THERE is a story for your general public. We may know of this, but how many others outside our audience do?

Maybe someone has done this, but to me, unike so many of these where even THAT would be a stretch, this seems like a perfect candidate.

It took quite a while, but IIT/ The Works in Newark, Ohio did it with a Jewett-built ex-Lake Shore Electric carbody which had been a house near Vermillion; that baby had a gigantic hole in the side, and several window posts AND partitions removed; and while its not operational, I'm kinda proud to say that was one of the first restoration projects I was involved in, given how good it looks today. It took about 5 years to get it fully done (long after I left as an intern), but its quite the car today.

TJ

TJ's makes a good point about how these type of cars stuck around to make it in to a "Preserved" state. A good example is L.S.E. 167. It also came from a house in Vermilion Oh. As far as ownership goes the Lamont Brothers(Dennis & Rick) have owned it longer than the Lake Shore did. Lake Shore Electric had it for 21 or 22 years and the Lamonts are on year 43. Thousands (if not 10's of thousnads) of these cars are gone for ever.
The ironic part of it is History is starting to prove there worth. How many cities are spending Millions on "light rail" Projects that mirror old interurban systems? And aren't doing as good a job as what once was?

The car looks restorable to me. It isn't any worse than what we did with Northern Texas Traction No.s 25 and 411 and even looks better than our current project, NTT Birney car No. 560, did when we found it in service as a house in West Texas. When your hometown system shut down streetcar service in the mid 30s, it's kind of hard to find the cars anywhere else other than housing stock

Edward Havens posted on a Yahoo forum:

They were 31' single truck Brill cars built in
1916 and 1917 and used on Reading Transit and Schuylkill Valley
Traction. They rode on Brill 21-E trucks. The arch roof cars of SVT
were built as follows:
Nos. 175-178, 1916
Nos. 183-188, 1916
Nos. 189-191, 1917

All had Brill "mushroom" air vents on the roof. The interiors seem to
resemble a Near-Side, a design that Brill pioneered. A photo of No.
191 shows a double ender with front doors only. It may have been a
later life rebuild to gain seating capacity.

The 4-wheel cars were used by SVT on its Norristown and Manayunk
local lines. Apparently, all come from Reading Transit during the
joint ownership era. Some later were sent back to Reading, Pa. SVT
ended service in 1933.

Here is No. 182, which apparently spent all of its service life in
Reading:
http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/pa/htm/rsr17.htm
And sister car No. 179:
http://www.davesrailpix.com/odds/pa/htm/rsr29.htm

The SVT roster listings are from Ben Rohrbeck's book on SVT; don't
have my copy of the Reading trolley book published by Dr. Cox handy
but presume the missing sequential numbers will be in the roster there.
Brill didn't produce standard Stone & Webster Birneys until 1919.
In fact, Brill tended to go its own way in streetcar design.
Witness the single-ended Brilliner that only saw use on four
properties: Baltimore, Cincinnati (one each); Philadelphia (three) and
Atlantic City, N.J. (two dozen).

Charlotte car 85 was worse. Simple Birney style unibody construction isn't too hard to replicate or repair wih a decent little plasma torch and a good wire welder.

dave

Fort Smith Trolley Museum has done that with their Birney #221, which was acquired as part of a house and left that way. I'm not sure whether the interior of the house/car is publicly accessible.