Cabin Fever Day at National Capital Trolley Museum featured the dedication and inaugural run of Capital Transit 09, shown here with DC Transit 1101. And just because we could, there was a quick round trip in 30 degree weather on BTS 606 aka The Boat. (Joel Salomon photos)

Wesley

Did the "boat" always look like that or is it a conversion?

This appears to be a Blackpool, England car and what you see is how they came - except for the paint scheme. There are two of these "boat cars" in California - one on the San Francisco Municipal Railway which is operated fairly often and one at the Western Railway Museum which has mechanical issues.
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This appears to be a Blackpool, England car and what you see is how they came - except for the paint scheme. There are two of these "boat cars" in California - one on the San Francisco Municipal Railway which is operated fairly often and one at the Western Railway Museum which has mechanical issues.

Just out of curiosity, why is the switch in the first photo built so heavily? Huge rail, vertical steel ties, man, I've never seen anything like it, especially for a trolley line. Was that switch originally built to be embedded in pavement, so it had to be heavily built since replacing it wasn't going to be easy? It just looks like the same type of rail I see on heavy mainlines these days.

The switch in the first photo is a left hand street switch salvaged from Vienna, Austria. The "Power Ball - Mega Millions" plan is to pave the loop at the visitor center and thus we have three street switches in place.

BTS 606 is a boat car from Blackpool, England via the Trolleyville/Lake Shore collection in Cleveland, OH. The boat cars were Blackpool's answer to replace an earlier style open car, aka "toast rack". The obvious benefit is the car is completely enclosed instead of open side seating in traditional US open cars. The blue and yellow paint scheme is a holdover when the car was painted for advertising in Blackpool.

Wesley

Is there any news or registration form yet for a 2014 Cabin Fever Day or Winterfest Weekend at any museum for this year?

It's at Rockhill, Feb 14-15, 2014. Contact Joel Salomon for info.

Good Afternoon

The SFMTA (MUNI to most) now has two of these Blackpool Boats # 228 + 233), having secured a second from the UK in 2013. It is currently have some upgrading done to the lighting system.

Blackpool has some non traditional liveries. Nice place to see vintage traction in action (amongst other places) in the UK.

Cheers

karl J

In Blackpool these cars ran with the trolley pole base on top of a steel tubing platform. This put the pole base at the same elevation as double deck cars to promote more reliable tracking on the wire. These cars did not have rope on the pole or a trolley catcher. They did not have a hook to hold the pole down when out of service. The were equippeed with a long bamboo pole with a metal hook on the end. In the rare case when the trolley pole came off the wire, the crew would use the bamboo pole to put it back on the wire.

In San Francisco the pole elevation platform gave problems in the tunnels. So it was removed and a rope was installed with a trolley catcher. Muni also removed the windshield. Some other cars elsewhere were shortened for similar clearance reasons.

The car at the Western Railway Museum is in its original Blackpool configuration but without a windshield. it does have a trolley pole rope. Troley wire at this museum is 21 feet above the rail which was standard for most interurban cars.

In some cities with high trolley wire, trolley pole bases were raised on Birney cars to prevent requiring a very long trolley pole. The Sacramento Norther Birney at WRM has an elevatyed pole base.

At National Capital our boat operates without the tower and carries a inside mount catcher using the Muni style installation. The tower was with the car in Ohio but did not convey to us. The car did not have a windscreen when it came stateside. Our boat is still in the blue and yellow livery used for a promotion in Blackpool.

Wesley