Lightning struck last week when the Trolley Museum got a call with an offer to receive a donation of a Phoenix trolley car that almost no one knew existed. The identity of the car was verified using a can opener to reveal the number, Car 509 (original number 118). This is exciting news, as very few cars survived the 1947 car barn fire and this is one of two cars that no one knew what happened to.
This event is occurring just as the museum is mounting an urgent campaign to raise $30,000 to buy out our property before the lease, which locks in a sweetheart purchase price, runs out. Please help us keep the streetcar story alive – go to ptm-property-purchase.causevox.com to read about the campaign and make a donation.

[T]his was apparently bought from the scrapyard in 1947 or '48 by someone who thought they had a use for it. The story I have heard (unverified) is that it was a guy with a production company - i.e. as a movie prop. Also unverified, that it sat in this guy's back yard in Mesa until 2010 or so when our donor got it from the estate. Certainly if anyone has any actual facts about this car's background over the last 72 years, we'd love to hear them!