From Charleston SC Post and Courier
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010 ... -derailed/

These two cars were some of the best chicken coops I ever ran across - and probably still are structurally very restorable. They were trailers originally I believe, from what ghosts of the car numbers were still almost visible, and might be excellent bodies for doodlebug conversion if not refitted as electric powered cars.

Is this a failure of vision or simply poor planning?

dave

They're steel bodies too - and for a daily runner, that really matters. With all the equipment constantly being scrapped, it might be possible to secure the necessary mechanicals...

It's a real shame to see something that's relatively rare and eminently restorable molder away like these two cars. I mean, as far as I know there are no streetcar bodies extant from S. Carolina other than these two and only two of the Piedmont & Northern interurban cars that are in the Railroad Historical Center in Greenwood, SC museum.

These cars are Cincinnati Car Co products delivered in 1918 for wartime Navy Yard service for the Charleston Consolidated Rwy & Lighting Co, Charleston, SC. Numbers 301-310 were delivered as trailers while numbers 311-316 were motor cars. I believe one of the saved carbodies was numbered 302. Not sure about the other one. The attached photos are from Tom Fetters book Palmetto Traction.

Some of the cars in the 301-310 series were later motorized and in at least one instance a front entrance was installed to make the car(s) suitable for one-man operation.

The car bodies were discovered in late 2005 and the structure surrounding them was demolished in early 2006. Frequent RyPN contributor Dave was involved to an extent in consulting with the contractors and owners regards the initial structure demo and the storage of the cars in a warehouse. I don't think he's been involved with them since.

In reviewing my saved e-mails on the cars and the photos I have of them, they appeared to be AT THE TIME as restorable as any other cadaver one might find. Not having personally inspected them I can't say whether that's true now. The situation doesn't look good if the article and the photo shown in the newspaper article is any indication.

I would say that while you won't find any Cincinnati Car Co type AB arch-bar truck very similar to those used under the Pittsburgh low-floor cars, a pair of the Boston Taylor trucks would probably work nicely.

Thanks!

Those trucks look suspiciously like the trucks under Sand Springs Ry. 68; also a 1918 graduate of Cincinnati Car Co.

http://www.irm.org/gallery/Sand-Springs-68/aac

They don't look like they'd be that hard to fabricate, provided drawings exist, otherwise there are at least trucks in existence that could be measured.

I have had nothing to do with these cars since they were moved into the warehouse, Jim.

Going out on a limb, I'd venture to suggest that by stretching the frame iron out a bit to accomodate a motor, you could build a pretty good generic replica truck using Carter Bros. components.

dave

Here's another South Carolina car from Columbia, SC. Owned by Don & Wanda Easterday of Myersville, MD, this interurban is in Hagerstown & Frederick colors where it last saw service.

http://www.myersvillelionsclub.org/trolley/car150.gif

Sloan

In an amazing coincidence I was riding my motorcycle in the area on Sunday (I live about 20 miles away) and stumbled across the cars before I saw the news article. I had seen the cars just prior to the demolition of the house they were used to construct and then a few weeks later after the demolition had started. The last I had heard of them Dave had helped move them safely to a secure warehouse. Now they couldn't be in a less-protected, more hazardous environment short of having a big sign by the interstate saying "COME ABUSE OUR RARE STREET CARS!!!". I just never understood that whole vandalism thing, even when I was an ornery teenager.

At least it's a hopeful sign that the local newspaper ran the story.

Sloan:

Fascinating find regards the ex-H&F Rwy, exx-Columbia (SC) Rwy Gas & Electric car. The Columbia system purchased a bunch of double-truck cars in 1917 for wartime service to the newly built Camp Jackson extension. They were later sold-off in the early 1920s to several properties when Camp Jackson was put on caretaker status under the State National Guard. The cars in the 93-99 and 117-119 series (St. Louis Car Co, 1917) went to Birmingham, Alabama. Most of the cars in the 100-116 series (builder and date unknown) were probably scrapped except for two cars that went to the Niagara, St. Catherines & Toronto Rwy., and now this third car in Maryland.

Judging from the roof line and the window arrangement at the front of the car in the photo at the link you posted, it appears that the H&F Rwy car pictured is from the mysterious 100-116 series of cars that were bought second hand for the WWI Camp Jackson service. By the mid-1920s the Columbia system was mostly ST Birney's.

Interesting! I've never known much at all about the Columbia system. According to the book "Blue Ridge Trolleys," H&F 150 (ex-Columbia number unknown) was built in 1918 by Southern Car Company. It's one of only five Southern Car products still around and had Taylor trucks, WH 306 motors and K-35 control - none incredibly rare - so it could theoretically be made whole again someday.

Very simple: BORED KIDS.

I play a computer game called World of Warcraft, and I often hear some kid say in trade chat "I'm bored!!!!" How can you be bored playing a computer game?

This is how http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

Very often, players will "Grief" other players, meaning harass them and disrupt their goals in-game. If you trace these griefers down, you will find they are ordinary suburban white collar workers who go to church and never cheat on their taxes. They "grief" because it's anonymous and they see the target as unimportant.

The streetcar vandals are anonymous, and think the streetcars are unimportant. That's a lack of education. The same kids would as easily arrest their boredom by restoration work, given guidance and tools.