Over at the Preserved Traction Blog, Jeff Hicks has posted an update about the East Troy Electric Railroad.

I asked Jeff about the status of a single truck open car I recall in Appleton. Can anyone here shed more light on my memory?

Thanks!

Wesley

This (replica?) Crossbench 4-wheeler was at East Troy the 3 times I visited the place between 2003 and 2013 but doesn't appear to be shown in their current fleet on the PNAERC website.
There is a photo of it on the East Troy Museum website, but they don't appear to have any list of vehicles in their collection on there....

In the 1980's I was a member of a group in Appleton which was restoring TMER&L car #846 (two truck car built by St. Louis Car in 1920 if I recall correctly). Wisconsin Electric Power Co. was very helpful in this effort, and the regional manager of the company was on our group's board. At that time WEPCo had a small wooden car body in Appleton which might be the one in question. It was a horse drawn car, and WEPCo had taken the wooden body off the original truck and mounted it on a frame with rubber tires so that it could be used in parades. I think WEPCo had had it ever since it was taken out of service long before. I believe TMER&L Car 846 is now at East Troy and perhaps that "horse car" went to East Troy as well and was converted to an electric car (?) Again if I recall correctly, Appleton was one of the very first cities to have an electric railway, in 1886.

I dated a gal back in early 1980s whose father was involved with that car. I was interested only so much as I had an old house to fix and my passion had been more related to steam locomotives. I made a call to a friend and I started looking around.I did not find anything concrete yet and have no way to authenticate what I did find as some of it was "I think that car came from......." with no way to verify.

On Utube there are some really cool videos remarkably saved about the early electric trolleys in Appleton and the car barns in the flats. I found nothing on horse drawn trolleys in my little search which was limited. My friend in Menasha who is a hx nut remembered quite a bit about the power company and thoughts about this car. I found one trolley body that looks mounted on a truck or bus frame that was bopping around Appleton. The body at a glance looked like an actual trolley body and some interior shots looked real. Have no idea if it is still around and I have never saw it up close and personal. It looked old but I am not a trolley guy. Then there is a restaurant called "Pullmans" at 619 s. Olde Oneida street in the flatts {Fox River} which was an old industrial area once upon a time. The restaurant sits on the site of the old Appleton Machine Property where I worked in the early 1970s. My friend Jim thought there was an old trolley incorporated into "Pullmans" and felt it was the one in question? The link to the restaurant didn't mention it nor did I see pictures of it. Jim also thought the car that the power company was involved with was not original to Appleton but had come from TX and was the same model or type used in Appleton but not original to Appleton. Again I can't verify any of this but maybe it can rattle some memories or facts that can be verified. Jim and I hope to get together and eat at this place as both of us worked at Appleton Machine when we were young. The restaurant sits on the west side of Oneida st and is where the old foundry/ Assembly and weld shop was. I worked there, Jim was a machinist and worked across the street. We drank a lot of beer out back on 2nd shit, sitting out along the river. Along with a lot of other illegal and morally wrong activity. In those days Appleton Machine made a lot of money. When they modernized and clamped down on the workforce {it was badly needed} they stopped making money and sold out to foreign investors. Sorry for the drift but this whole area of the trolley history connects with my own youth and history. Regards, John.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWnO4Fj4PQ&t=1067s

https://pullmansrestaurant.com/

I'm pretty sure you asked Frank Hicks!

if we're talking about the replica open car, Frank doesn't list those in the database because they're not preserved historic electric railway equipment.

JEFF,

My apologies. Lately I suffer from name association issues, like my grandmother did when calling me every grandson name in the family tree until she would hit mine. Environment or heredity? Lol.

Meanwhile, I knew why the car was not on PNAERC when a helpful reader identified the Belgian truck.

Thank you for your part in maintaining the database.

Wesley

Good morning all. Regarding open car 21 at East Troy. The truck is not from Belgium, it is from Milan Italy. I had the great satisfaction of negotiating and importing it myself. On the truck is a number plate with 21 on it. So I numbered the car 21.
For two years the car had Green Bay Traction Company on the letter board. I did this because the Green Bay Packers were winning. So you may see photos of that version. I also am the builder of the car. The car has Belgium controllers and UH10 air compressor.