An update on Reading 510!? Clipped from the Spaghetti Factory thread.

Wesley

More information on the Reading Birney:

Frank Hick writes:

I noticed that you had posted on RyPN asking about the Reading
Birney body that was at Magee, car 510, and that there was another
post suggesting the car was destroyed in the flood at Magee. I
strongly suspect that car 510 was not destroyed at Magee. A couple
of months ago Jack Franklin from East Troy passed along the
following photo:

https://outlet.historicimages.com/products/rf-aaq833

The 1973 photo, which I believe is a Detroit Free Press picture, shows Detroit City Planner Alex Pollock with a Birney being craned in the background.
The car is 510, which according to my records was painted yellow and lettered #124 before leaving Magee (though why exactly this was done I'm not certain).

Given that it's a Detroit photo of a man in Detroit city government - though it's possible the picture was actually snapped at Magee, I don't know - I'm guessing that car 510 did indeed make its way to the Detroit Citizens Railway as previously thought. Where it went from there I don't know; there was a suggestion that it may have been sold to
one of the spaghetti restaurant chains but it's just as likely it
was simply scrapped.

Joel Salomon adds:

I am fairly certain the 510 survived the flood intact. I remember seeing it as a kid and my dad took the slide of the car painted yellow and I am fairly sure that is the Reading car. I remember being at Magee in September of 1972 on a gloomy day and was amazed at the track and how twisted up it was because of the water. The image of the car being craned is an Ed Miller slide that I scanned. I am guessing that someone panted the car after that date for its new home.

Anyone know how to find Alex Pollock?

I don't know where this museum got the body from but as far as i know this car isn't
a Richmond, Va. car. Notice how much it looks like the Reading 510 car. Same basic body style and window arrangement. even the frame (knees) are the same at the door.

https://www.virginiahistory.org/what-yo ... w-virginia

Odd, I'll see if I can post a photo of the slide. At least we know the car made it out of Magee.

According to the PNAERC database the car is a Richmond car body. I vaguely recall the car was restored in the shop at Seashore Trolley Museum. There was a Birney body on Rt 17 in Tappahannock, VA for many years that disappeared in the 1980s. I wonder if the Richmond display car is that car? I remember seeing the Birney on weekend trips to/from Norfolk in 1979. (Hank - your project car was still on RT 17 at that time as well.)

http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/pnaerc.pl?detail=1934

Wesley

Hi...

From what i was able to find out the car body that was just South of Tappahannock,Va.
on Rte 17 was a Richmond body. It was a double truck Birney unlike the single truck car at the museum in Richmond. I still have a picture of the car around here somewhere. It was painted white if i recall.

I'm lucky i took the picture. The car later disappeared, probably when they widened the road from two to four lanes. I recall going thru there on my way to Baltimore not long after the road was widened and it was gone.

The car i'm working on, 390 was much further South near Yorktown. BSM got it during the 1970's and moved it to Baltimore. One i'd like to find.... according to the "Great American Chicken Coop Project" there is supposed to be (or was) a semi convertible in or near Providence Forge, Va. North of Williamsburg. I don't know if that car is a Newport News/Hampton car or a Richmond car. One of the guys from Belmont Trolley (Belmont NC who have one of the Portugal cars) thinks the Providence Forge car might have been a Richmond car, but Richmond didn't have semi convertibles that i know of. Only Hampton and Newport News did.

There used to be a single truck Birney from Norfolk near me (I live in Franklin, Va.) it was about 10 miles South of Franklin. What i found out was it was a Norfolk car that had been in a accident about 1945-1946 and was sold. It was moved out here (I have to wonder why and how given the roads at the time and the distance , (almost 50 miles). That car was scrapped about 10 years ago when the land it was on changed ownership. The former owner was using it as a shed. The body was intact except for what i assume was the damaged end. It still had most of its glass and window bars, even the signal lights near the roof. I mentioned it to Mark Dawson at BSM (at the time BSM was thinking about getting the former Baltimore Birney body from Nebraska) but BSM never did anything with the car near me. (the body was identical to a Baltimore Birney)

What about the truck(s)?

I can't speak for the others...but the cars i've mentioned lost their trucks decades ago when they were taken out of service and were probably scrapped for the metal. We're trying to find a set for car 390 (car i'm working on) now.

I just spoke with Alex Pollock who was involved in moving the Reading Birney from Magee to Detroit. Alex reports the car body went next to the Michigan Transit Museum. The body eventually deteriorated in outdoor storage and was scrapped.

News photo of Alex with the Birney in Detroit

Wesley