For those of you who have been following our efforts to produce new journal boxes for a single truck Birney Safety Car, I am pleased to pass along a copy of the QA/QC report for the first article.

Let me say that I am very impressed by the quality of the work produced by Atlas Patternworks of Longmont Colorado and Western Foundries of the same locale. This journal box was no small feat in my opinion and they did a superb job.

Anyone who is not already part of this casting effort is encourage to contact me ASAP since we will be placing the final order probably on July 9th.

I did receive the first article a few weeks back and after being out of town for several days, I have completed my assessment of the journal box. I am very pleased with the results. There were a couple of issues with the brass not fitting correctly, but upon further investigation it appears that the brass is slightly different from the drawings I have as well as the original journal box from Charlotte. I have prepared drawings showing the dimensions of the critical areas that I will post on Monday. The tolerances in the dimensions are consistent with a sand casting, so I am very happy with the results.

There is some warping on the back wing that supports the spring cups. Ironically, the original journal box provided by Charlotte shows the same warping. I think it is a result of the design of the box - where a thin section merges with a thicker cross section and it does not seem to affect the position of the cups. The casting did have one small pinhole and some superficial surface wrinkles in one area. I have brought this to the attention of the foundry as the only criticism of the casting.

The original Brill journal box is shown in the photos is painted gray, while the new box is bare steel.. As discussed previously, we decided to cast in WCB Steel instead of any kind of iron (original drawings show malleable iron). According to the foundry and as seen in the pictures, they had to increase the thickness of some sections to get the steel to flow correctly into the mold. The increase in size does not affect any of the critical dimensions. Also, to keep the cost of the pattern reasonable, the bolt holes and cover lip were not cast as you can see in the pictures. You probably have someone in your organization that can add these items if not you.

If anyone has additional questions, please communicate them to me at your earliest convenience. As soon as I have heard from everyone, I will be forwarding the check for the remaining 39 pieces to be cast, probably by July 9th. PLEASE RESPOND WITH ANY QUESTIONS AND A PREFERRED SHIPPING OPTION.

The pictures are on my website as follows:

http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox1.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox2.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox3n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox3o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox4n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox4o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox5n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox5o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox6.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox7n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox7o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox8n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox8o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox9n.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox9o.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox10.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox11.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/jbox12.jpg

These pictures and other information can be found on my website: http://rplsfaq.com/birney.html

For those of you who didn't know, we have continued the production process to reproduce an entire Brill 79E truck. The latest project is the sideframe which is 10 feet long and weighs over 300 lbs. Once again we have participants from museums across the US and support from the 20th Century Electric Railway Foundaiton. The pattern was ordered late last year.

I am pleased to report that I have talked to the foundry today and they have let me know that the first new sideframe for a Brill 79E1 truck to be manufactured in a long time has been poured and will be ready for shipping soon. Upon receipt of the sideframe, it will be inspected for QA/QC purposes and the order for the remaining sets of sideframes will be placed.

Still not too late to join the sideframe order and there might be a set or two of the journal boxes available (but at a higher cost than if you would have joined the original casting call).

We are well on our way to providing parts to allow for the restoration of more than 10 Birney cars.

Andy Nold, NTHT, Inc.

How many Birney bodies are extant in the world that would require these parts for restoration?

Interesting question... I compiled the below list, sorted by truck type, with Brill 79's first since that's what's being replicated. Cars needing trucks, but which have been made operational using other (known) types substituting for original types, are listed. Note that there are many cars in this list for which no real need likely exists to replicate a truck, notably most of the cars in private ownership, cars on static indoor display like Tulsa 395 and Grand Forks 123; two cars, OM&B 4 and LARy 1030, are also thought to be mounted on rubber tires currently.

Brill 79:
Arkansas Power & Light 320 (private ownership)
Arkansas Valley Railway Light & Power 84 (Southeastern Colo. Heritage Center)
Biddeford & Saco 615 (Seashore Trolley Museum, currently on OB 25-66 truck)
B.C. Electric 400 (Nelson Electric Tramway, currently on Belgian truck)
Carolina Power & Light 117 (Charlotte Trolley)
Dallas Railway & Terminal 636 (McKinney Avenue, currently on homebuilt truck)
Fargo & Moorhead 28 (Minnesota Streetcar Museum)
Fort Smith Light & Traction 221 (Fort Smith Trolley Museum)
Guelph Radial Railway 225 (Halton County Radial Railway)
Kansas City Public Service 1545 (Fort Smith Trolley Museum)
Lewiston-Clarkston Transit 8 (private ownership)
Los Angeles Railway 1003 (Orange Empire Railway Museum)
Los Angeles Railway 9007 (Orange Empire Railway Museum)
Muskogee Electric Traction 311 (Three Rivers Museum)
Northern Texas Traction 557 (Old Pueblo Trolley)
Northern Texas Traction 560 (North Texas Historic Transportation)
Omaha Lincoln & Beatrice 4 (Union College)
Pacific Gas & Electric 46 (Western Railway Museum)
Pensacola Electric 61 (Museum of Commerce)
San Diego Electric Railway 316 (Orange Empire Railway Museum)
Sandwich Windsor & Amherstburg 212 (Halton County Radial Railway)
Savannah Electric & Power 636 (Savannah Roundhouse Museum)
Tulsa Street Railway 395 (Trolley Square, Appleton)
Wichita Transportation 255 (Historic Preservation Alliance)
York Railways 123 (York County Heritage Trust; not a Birney)
York Utilities 72 (Connecticut Trolley Museum)

Brill 21:
Pacific Gas & Electric 41 (Western Railway Museum)

Brill 78:
Colorado Springs & Interurban 109 (Greeley Municipal Museum)
Fresno Traction 62 (private ownership)
Fresno Traction 64 (private ownership)
Portland Railway 801 (Old Spaghetti Factory, Portland)
Seattle Municipal Railway 210 (King County Metro)
Tacoma Railway & Power 326 (Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society)
Virginia Electric Power 1240 (Virginia Historical Society)

Cincinnati 139:
Alabama Power 103 (private ownership)
Fort Smith Light & Traction 205 (Fort Smith Trolley Museum

St Louis 7:
Fresno Traction 74 (Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society)
Grand Forks Street Railway 123 (Old Spaghetti Factory, St. Louis)
Los Angeles Railway 1030 (Angeleno Heights Trolley Line)
Mississippi Valley Public Service 12 (La Crosse County Historical Society)
Stockton Electric 52 (Western Railway Museum)
Tampa Electric 163 (Tampa & Ybor City, currently on homebuilt truck)

St Louis 72:
Puget Sound Traction Light & Power 357 (San Diego Electric Railway)

Frank, there is a Birney-type body under the trainshed at the Montgomery (AL) Visitor Center on what appears to be a frame made of handcar parts and wheels. The Visitor Center used to be Union Station.

Good catch... I inadvertently left that one out. It's a Perley-Thomas from 1919 but not much is known about the car, including what type of truck it had. I would speculate it's just as likely that it had a 79 as anything else, though.

I count 27 then, not counting the remains of Aurora #85. Out of curiosity, can I ask how many have been produced or are on order? And weren't a batch of them made a year or two ago?

As mentioned in the first post of this thread, 40 journal boxes were cast (4 ea. per truck). That would make the potential restored Birneys 10 even instead of 10+, but the $9k patterns are still available for future use. Two organizations cast extra sets for potential resale or future use and one organization that had some cast may not restore the car that the castings were acquired for, so there are sets of journal boxes available at an increased price.

What is being cast now is the sideframe (2 ea. per truck). Without looking at the paperwork, I believe that we only had orders for 6 sets of these. Perhaps I should have started a new thread for the sideframes instead of adding it to this thread or perhaps I can change the title of this thread as a catch-all for the whole project.

AN

At least four of the forty new jorurnal boxes were purchased as spare parts for an exising complete Birney. That reduces the number of potential restorations to nine.

Please be advised that the Birney listed as "Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice" #4 NEVER was an OL&B Birney as it is a counterfeit. It is really an ex VEPCO Birney from Petersburg, VA., # unknown. I was there when this "swap" was made for political purposes by the then owner, the late Fr. John V. LesCanec.

Ira Schreiber

Andy,

What Birney Car or cars are you making the truck (s) for?

I take it you are involved with one of the traction museum?

Ted Miles

Ted, sorry I missed your post. I am with North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc., (http://www.northtexastransport.org) a 501(c)3 based in Fort Worth, Texas. We are building a truck for Northern Texas Traction No. 560.

I also have an update on the project. The first article sideframe has been received. I have been checking it against the drawings and it looks like we will accept it with a few comments to the foundry.

http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/sideframe1.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/sideframe3.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/sideframe4.jpg
http://www.rplsfaq.com/truckstuff/sideframe7.jpg

This sideframe is a fun little part that is about 10 feet long and weighs 375 lbs. If you are one of the participants in this casting call, I will probably email you more information within a day or two to get authorization to proceed with casting the rest of the order.

I took some more pictures yesterday including one that is really inspirational to me. I forget to bring my camera home, so I will try to add that tomorrow.

Would this have been possible to flame cut or water jet cut from solid?

I'm not sure how you would get the thickness at the trunnion mount in the top middle of the pedestal jaw. I suppose you could weld falsies on and grind the radius in. The problem with cutting it out of plate steel is that the critical loads are perpendicular to each other depending on what part of the frame you are looking at. The grain of the plate would not be in the optimal orientation for both areas if you cut it out of one solid piece. Alternately, you could cut out the jaws oriented to the grain and then weld them to a bar. We looked at doing that, but ended up going with the casting instead. In a caring and friendly manner, I would say that this discussion would have been more beneficial 6 months ago when we were trying to figure out the best way to do it and before we spent several grand on the pattern. :)

I can send you a CAD file for conversion to 3d if you would like to try it.

Andy,

Now that you have a truck for your car; what are you going to do about motors?

At the Western Railway Museum we have a couple of Birney bodies with trucks but so far no motors. So the search goes on! I am not aware of any trolley or street car museums that have made electric motors from scratch.

Although from the reports that Donold Curry is posting; the A C Electric Shop that Seashore uses to do their motor work can pretty much do anything that a motor might need!

From the list that Frank Hicks posted I think there might be a need for motors sooner than later!

And those little 23 inch wheels are not very common either!

Ted Miles