The Brill gas car at the Trolley Museum of New York is running again following a mechanical restoration. This video shows some of the work done to bring it back to life.

https://youtu.be/rZRqtvgXF0I

That looks excellent! Congratulations to you all!

Very nice car! Congrats on restoring it to service. One question; how many seats does it have for passengers?


Les

The current arrangement has 10 Hale & Kilburn seats in the passenger compartment, so 20 adults can sit.

If I recall correctly, this was one of the Model 55s built for Sperry. If so, does it still have any detector equipment inside?

There was another ex-sperry car that bounced around a bit. I think it was at the Valley RR before going to the newly-constituted (but now defunct) Edwards Motorcar company. Valley had done quite a bit of sheetmetal work on the car to make it look like a stock, passenger-carrying Model 55. Whatever happened to that car?

Unless I'm mistaken M-55 is still down in Ringoes on a siding. I don't know why it has been parked, but I've heard anything ranging from brake issues to some sort of accident (although the most I've seen in recent pictures is a dent on the rear cab end).

Detector equipment long gone. I would assume removed by SRS when they sold Nos. 120 and 121 to Remington Arms at the onset of WWII. TMNY has the worn out Continental R6572 engine blocks that were in both 120 and 121. TMNY "repowered" 120 with another R6572 (military surplus) whereas Edwards put a Chevy small block in M-55 (ex.121).

The M-55 is at Ringoes, unless recently moved...I heard that last time it was moved by truck the transmission case was broken...too much angle on the ramp...
It is powered by a 396...turbo 400 trans...Original reversing gearbox and final drive...
Not sure how the dent got in it...probably a hard coupling...

Do you mean the case on the new transmission, or is it the casing on the original gearbox or final drive?

As I understood stood it, it was the turbo 400's case....
Its an easy fix..probly a good time to swap to a 700R4...that would give a additional gear and lower revs while cruising...
If I'm recalling right, the cars gearing is a bit low...
The original gearboxes are built like tanks, much tougher than automotive transmission,etc...

I have never understood the mind set of these people; who call themselves the New York State Trolley Museum.

The time might have been better spent putting up some wire so they can carry people in electric cars.

They spent a lot of money on their right of way; so the tracks should have been in good shape.

ted66

Some of the reasons wire isn't up yet and what is planned to get power going are towards the bottom of this writeup: http://tmny.org/vision.html. Not mentioned there is the fact that 3000' of trolley wire was stolen from the museum several years ago which put a dent in the plans. (see http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33285)

The museum has recently obtained the generator that powered the former Penns Landing operation, so I think more visible progress towards electrification will happen soon.