I just received a news item from a fellow electric railway history enthusiast which reports that veteran entertainer Jerry Lewis has a former Newark Subway PCC streetcar that he runs on his estate in a suburb of Las Vegas, Nev. According to the report, he has about a half mile of track and powers it with a towed diesel generator. This sounds cool, and I'm sure a lot of traction fans would be envious. BUT....the news item is date lined April 1. Is this story for real, or is it someone's "creative writing", cut from the "whole cloth"? The fact that Mr. Lewis is 87 years old and not in the best of health makes me wonder about the credibility of the source. The Preserved North American Elecric Ry. Cars website shows many preserved Newark PCCs, but none in Nevada. One followup report says that there are still eight PCCs at the Hudson-Bergen light rail yard, so if this isn't just a "sea story" the car came from somewhere else. The article also mentioned that he has a retired San Francisco cable car, that apparently is also operable (presumably with non-SF-cable-car trucks, because the SF cable railway system is 42"gauge.)

Interesting story. Due to the release date, I'd put a grain of salt (more like a pound of salt) on this one until it is confirmed or denied.

I hadn't heard there were still 8 cars in storage at Bergen, so I did some checking. According to the Hicks-Hakner database, the 8 cars which have been picked up by Bayonne for their planned heritage streetcar line are the 4, 7, 13, 15, 24, 25, 26 & 28 (the database lists the storage location as Jersey City). Also according to the database, NJT still has in storage the 1, 5, 6 & 10 (the latter 3 are being held for URHS), while the 16 is in work service. That's a total of 13 currently located at NJT facilities.

If the address for his Vegas house that I found online via numerous sources is correct (1701 Waldman Ave. Las Vegas, NV 89102) the only backyard train he has room for is a G scale by the pool...

The story gives the location as "Summerlin", which is quite a ways northwest of Waldman Ave., which is just on the other side of I-15 from The Strip. (the plot thickens.....)

An April Fool's posting http://tinyurl.com/lap5duw

Jim Tatum

So apparently this is a "land story" (the Nevada equivalent of a "sea story"). Whoever created it certainly wins points for making it sound plausible. Some years ago I did one about the discovery of some Pacific Electric interurbans, but put enough clues into it to let everyone know it was a "spoof".

Back to work, everyone. Show's over.