If you thought 8534 going away was bad, It is getting worse!

Well it seems that the end is here for SEPTA's museum fleet. EVERY PCC (Except the 18 rebuilds) is for sale. The Broad Street Museum train is for sale and so is the remaing Almond Joys. The letter from SEPTA was sent to museums. Here is a list of cars that are for sale:

Broad Street Subway
B-1 #1 J.G. Brill
B-1 # 51 J.G. Brill
B-2 # 1025 J.G. Brill
B-3 # 166 Pressed Steel

Market Frankford
M-3 610, 628, 632, 639, 645, 845, 846 BUDD 1960

Light Rail
PCC's 2054, 2098, 2117, 2150, 2160, 2168, 2187, 2728, 2748, 2799

Also for sale are 2 box cars and a snow sweeper (C145)

Whatever cars are not sold to museums will be sold for scrap.

Nice. So the trolley at 1234 is going bye-bye????? Didn't they spend like a mil or 2 to have a crane put that down there?

I guess they need the cash?

Too bad about the BSS cars and Almond Joys, but there is no one at 1234 that has a inch of nostalsia or preservation in their systems.

Guess that also means there will be no more PCC-II's made. No wonder they're not up for sale.

Hey, we should just do down to 1234 and stick a for sale sign on their front door.

Well that's good news for San Francisco. I hope Muni does buy the PCC's so atleast they will actually be kept running.

This is sickening. It's like melting your jewelry and silver coin collection for their metal content. Do they really think that they will get enough from selling these cars to make any dent whatsoever in their budget?

SEPTA has never cared about its heritage, even when money was not the overriding issue it is now. OK, you can't keep everything and they're not in the business of running a trolley museum . But they let the PSTC center-door cars rot at 69th Street and dumped dozens of PCC's in fields to meet the same end instead of finding someone to preserve them, or setting up a heritage service like SF. Plus I'm sure others remember the time they torched a car that was set to be picked up by a museum, simply because the truck was delayed a couple of hours beyond its scheduled arrival time. Not that SEPTA ever has any trouble adhering to a schedule, do they?

Thats fine if SEPTA doesent want to be in the museum business, but alot of effort was put into creating the historic trolley loops in Chestnut Hill and CC, and now they've completely given up on it.

In other cities, transit companies go out of their way to acknowledge their heritage and run fantrips, maybe even at a profit. But here, all of our heritage has been wiped away. SEPTA won't even acknowledge that they operate a system that was built by someone else.

Would it kill them to keep the Broad Street Train??? I don't see a new order of cars coming in that needs the track space. These cars have been on the BSS since the 30's. Leave them be.....

In addition, Somebody should remind SEPTA that they DO NOT OWN those cars. They belong to the City of Philadelphia!

Mark: the BSS cars date from 1928-1-150; 1938-150-200 and the Bridge cars from 1936. Since their retirement they have been sitting out in the open at Fern Rock. I think they should be kept underground at the lower level at Pattison if SEPTA was serious about preserving them. The MFSE cars are falling victim to taggers - see other thread I posted on this. The trolley cars - SEPTA should have contracted out the operation to interested trolley preservation groups for the CC and CH trolley operation. The rebuilt PCC cars should be used somewhere - the 15 fiasco nontheless. SEPTA did something right with these cars - give them credit for at least trying. As for history well.... MACTRAXX

I checked with one of my contacts at 1234 and they said the cars being up for sale is a rumor. Can we confirm this?

There is probablly no one left qualified to operate the BSS cars, and they probablly need lots of work to be useful for a fantrip. Then again, its SEPTA's fault that they are in such bad shape. They could have stored them up at Erie on the upper level!

M3 cars are too far gone to be useful for anything. There is a set parked at 69th St as well.

PCC's should be kept for further manufacture of PCC-II's. I bet SEPTA is stalling on the 15 so that if the line is successful and there are no PCC's left to convert, then there will be no possibility of expanding to the 23 or 56 (ha).

It is no rumor. It is true. I have the letter here. It was sent to many area museums. Deadline for bids is 2PM Monday. Strange thing is that the CTA cars on the Norristown line are not included.

MarkW wrote: Strange thing is that the CTA cars on the Norristown line are not included.

That's because I don't have a decent photo of them yet.

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery/SEPT ... 4_12_29_12

At least not a recent photo.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/290 ... ZTpOrtmAlz

MarkW wrote:In addition, Somebody should remind SEPTA that they DO NOT OWN those cars. They belong to the City of Philadelphia!

The City may own the cars, but SEPTA is responsible for maintaining and operating them, and have full control to dispose of them as they wish.

Remember also that half the old Budd fleet of the Market-Frankford Line was owned by the City. They weren't consulted for permission to dispose of them either.

Silverliner II wrote:

MarkW wrote:In addition, Somebody should remind SEPTA that they DO NOT OWN those cars. They belong to the City of Philadelphia!

The City may own the cars, but SEPTA is responsible for maintaining and operating them, and have full control to dispose of them as they wish.

Remember also that half the old Budd fleet of the Market-Frankford Line was owned by the City. They weren't consulted for permission to dispose of them either.

We all pretty much agree that scrapping of historical equipment is the least desirable option but if the City in fact holds title to the cars, even if Septa decides to dispose of them, shouldn't the City get the scrap value for the cars? Other than cleaning house, what incentive does Septa have in disposing of this equipment?

Wonder if we could at least get one last farewell trip on the BSS Brill cars or the Budd MFL cars?

Lets hope the trolley museums in Scranton, Orbisonia, and here in Pittsburgh get at least one or two.