The article reports that 324 is one of three surviving units which is not exactly true. One of those units is a snow sweeper and the other is car 505 which is beyond repair, so in reality this is the last and only passenger car available for preservation.

Here is a view of her in June.

The saga of #505 is a cautuonary tale of where the road to good intentions often leads.

She was rescued privately by Dr. Groman and brought to Rail City after she made the last Scranton streetcar run. Dr. Groman saved the sweeper, too.

The ensuing 50 years decimated this once intact piece.

If the Lackawanna County gang ever does anything with the carcass of #505 and the other Electromobile parts they have acquired, it will be more of a replica than a restoration.

Rob

You raise an interesting point. Where is the boundary between a resoration and a replica? 505 would probably need almost all of the carbody structure built new. One advantage is that a lightweight steel car has a relatively simple structure with many fewer pieces to fabricate than an older wood car. However, the pieces require use of metal forming machinery that most museum shops do not have.

How much original hardware (trucks, motors, contollers, seats, windows, brake valves, etc.) is available is a good question. I have been told that a lot was removed from the car when it was owned by Rockhill and put into storage. The New Bedford/Queensboro Bridge car that ECTMA acquired from the Trolley Museum of New York should provide most of the missing items.

While I love reliving my high school days riding the Red Arrow cars at Electric City, having a Scranton car in operation will be a plus (and keep the local politicos interested). If only a L&WV car survived...

The wood LVT cars are pretty darn close to wood Laurel Line stock. Of course, one of the remaining LVT woodies is in Scranton. I would love to see that car or #46 be able to get some fast running.

During my brief stint as a motorman at the old Penn's Landing location in Philly, running #46 was like using a stallion to haul a fruit wagon. To be fully interpreted properly, that car needs to be able to mooooooove.

Rob

There is always the slightest of chances that a surviving Laurel Line car may someday come to light. Several bodies and even complete cars had been sold off over the years of operation.

Best leads? Cars 2, 4, and 103 were sold to the Galveston-Houston Electric RR. Car 102 was sold and then resold to the Southern NY Power and Railway Company.

I wouldn't hold my breath, but again stranger things have happened. Keep checking those chicken coops.

I personally laud the restoration of car 324 and recognize the dedication of those who will bring this classic piece back from oblivion. With respect to Scranton Electromobile car 505, I hope that despite its deplorable shape there are those who have the long range view of restoring this car also. From personal experience at IRM, I have helped however slightly in bringing back a sand car (ie stripped of all usable components) to a museum gem under Frank Sirinek. Don't count out 505. The folks at Electric City have invested a lot in the Osgood Bradley drawing copies that we supplied them from the IRM's Pullman Library and they do have raw material and knowledge of another car to effect a transformation. Recently we have worked with Seashore Trolley Museum to supply drawing copies for a wood car retired in 1922, restorable but hardly complete so do not give up hope on a carcass that has significant historic fabric. Three years ago when I visited Scranton the car was stored inside, a clue to its eventual restoration after this car. Say not whether but when and do something for the other car in the meantime to make it happen. Too many naysayers and too few artisans! Besides my work in the library, I support the restoration of B&M 1906 Pullman 1094 cafe-coach, and CB&Q Zephyr baggage car 993 to store more restoration documents. Say not whether but when! With respect for all views and opinions, Ted Anderson

Ted, 505, to the very best of my knowledge, is still rotting away outside at Rockhill. The phrase 'rust holding hands' would almost be too polite. What's left could only serve as a pattern to create an entirely new car body.



As the article states, even 324, which isn't that bad off, would have been waiting a long, long time for attention if it was not a former Scranton Transit car. PRT 5205 is still being worked on, and once these two are wrapped up my guess would be that the ECTM will either tackle a PCC car or bump CA&E 453 to the top of the list as it's an interurban car and is reminiscent of the L&WV.

ECTM's excursion path is pretty much established as far as it's going to go, so the only way they're going to be able to offer a different experience is with a good selection of operable rolling stock.

Hard to say it's impossible to put a new body on the trucks (if the trucks are original) but it's remarkable to even be saved in its present condition. The O B drawings should make that quite possible. At IRM there is a PCC shell now in primer that a team of two have been working on for some years with limited drawings but immense determination. A dedicated volunteer is one who never turns away, never leaves a kit for someone else, and hangs in there. Every car needs its hero (definition: a plugger with foresight and courage, can attract bucks) and this poor forlorn structure will most likely wait a very long time. I started on the B&M car years ago, got involved with the Pullman Library to make drawings available. The car and its companion diner B&M 1090 (needs a hero) are accumulating inside storage cash, enough for just one car right now, and 1094 has a new hero in Jack Biesterfeld whose efforts are stopping the car from going outside to certain ruin: the philosophy was to make it presentable with sparkling mahogany interior, fake food on the tables, replacement chairs from scrapped cars in the 1950's, etc despite other pressing needs for the car. I hope the 505 in its condition, representing a later phase in Scranton operations can find inside or tarped storage as well even though far (very) from presentation and very much a ghost car. I am aware that nothing happening, whether with paper or with hardware, is sure to cause the artifact to deteriorate over time. Hence many restored cream puffs of yesteryear are today disappearing from our midst. Just my thoughts, and great respect for the ECTM's incredible support and determination, model of sensible operation and display, and community awareness to make things happen. - Ted Anderson

I'm sure the Association would be more than happy to accept any donations offered on 505 or any of the cars in their collection. They do have individual accounts for each piece, so you can be confident that whatever you send along will go where you want, should you direct it towards a particular car.

The tragedy of 505 is that it suffered a case of out-of-sight-of-mind. Decades ago, it left Rail City to be part of the then-new Magee Transportation Museum, Bloomsburg, PA. The museum had built a trolley line and shop in flood plain along the north branch of the Susquehanna River. Ex-Rio open cars restored by Ed Blossom gave tourists a nice ride.

In June 1972, hurricane Agnes stalled for five days in the area dumping oceans of rain. The river flooded the museum complex ripping up the right-of-way and depositing silt in traction motors. Harry Magee, who was the inspiration for the museum and its prime benefactor, died. His son-in-law Myles Caterman handled the estate. Caterman was anxious to dispose of artifacts as there were no plans to re-open the museum.

Wayne Laepple and I, with authorization from the Rockhill Trolley Museum, went to Caterman and purchased Scranton snow sweeper 107. In late August McHugh Brothers provided a Low-Boy to haul the sweeper to Rockhill Furnace. I drove a roll-back to carry spare parts. The loading went smoothly, and somehow Rockhill leadership got permission to take 505.

The Low-Boy, now empty, returned from Rockhill Furnace and loading of 505 began. The car's frame was two week t withstand the rigors of tie-downs. Someone found an I-beam and put that through the center of the "hulk" which provided sufficient mass for the haul.

Once the on road, things went smoothly until the Low-Boy tried to negotiate an entrance ramp where grade and curve combined to make the trailer "bottom out." While the crew was trying to resolve the matter, a back-up of cars behind the trailer attracted the attention of a local police officer. He was sympathetic to our plight, but the attitude of an arriving state trooper was the opposite. The trooper was a martinet and insisted that the load could not continue as Pennsylvania prohibited heavy loads on Sundays. Pleading that this was a nonprofit endeavor was to no avail. The trooper insisted that the load move to a nearby area to clear the ramp. Someone made a phone call and found a site to store the car "temporarily." So there 505 sat for a few decades. And since no one saw it, no one felt any urgency to restore it.

Sloan

Let me add a few more details to the sage of Scranton 505. When the car was moved from Rail City to Bloomsburg in late 1964 or early 1965, it was transported aboard a very marginal trailer. Somewhere up in New York State, the trailer began to fail, and the driver pulled off the road before the rig completely collapsed. They scouted the area and eventually found a guy with a portable welder mounted on a truck. He came to the rescue by welding gussets from the trailer to the frame of 505 on both sides of the fracture, in effect making the carbody part of the rig. When they arrived at the museum site in Bloomsburg, the gussets were cut with a torch and the rig slowly sagged to the ground.

When Harry Magee saw how complete 505 was, he directed Ed Blossom to halt work on North Branch Transit 10 (a marvelous 1901 Brill semi-convertible) and whale into 505. To make a long story short, the deeper Ed got into 505, the more obvious it was that the car was a major, major basket case, nearly every single component rusted by years of salt use on the streets of Sctanton, plus more than a decade of outdoor "storage" at Rail City. By the time I arrived on the scene in September 1965, work had halted on 505 and all efforts were directed at the first of the two Rio open cars restored to operation at Bloomsburg.

Incidentally, the little steeple-cab snow sweeper, 107, was the first car to operate under its own power at Bloomsburg in the spring of 1966, and it was the second electric car I ever operated. Coincidentally, the first was also a snow snow sweeper, DC Transit 09 at Rockhill. As Sloan mentioned above, he and I, with financial assistance from the late Ed Miller and Phil Glass, purchased 107 and donated it to Rockhill in March 1973.

Thanks for the history lesson on 505. I suppose I feel better knowing that it was shot even in 1965, roughly just ten years after the line was shuttered, and that this wasn't simply a case of abject neglect.

Again, while I feel 505 is beyond even back burner status, money talks; if the Association and the museum see a strong interest from the public and donations continue to filter in, rebuilding 505 may become a reality.

The original trucks are still around btw, they're being used as mock up units at Rockhill until ECTM comes calling for them.