Does anybody know the whereabouts of LVT C-15

......LVT No. C-15? This was originally Jewett passenger car No. 808, converted to a freight car after the arrival of the 1000-series cars, then sold to PTC, who used it as a trash-collection car on the Broad St. Subway line, then was sold to the Magee Transportation Museum in Bloomsburg, PA, which went out of business after Hurricane Agnes hit in 1972. Its trucks went under LVT No. 801 which is at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton.....

.......but what happened to the body? Does it still exist or has it been scrapped?

Try contacting Charlie Lowe at the New York Museum of Transportation (Rush, NY). A lot of material from Magee ended up there, but not the C-15. However, the museum may have a lead on its disposition.

http://www.nymtmuseum.org/

-otto-

Thanks, Otto. I'll contact them as soon as I get a chance.

Last I had heard from the late Ed Blossom is that the car had been stored in the Bloomsburg area across Rte. 80 from where the Magee museum was located. Ed had shown me photos of the car years ago and it was in very poor condition.

I have never seen it at this location but I would also be interested in knowing if the remains still exist.

Joel

RDG484:

You've touched on an interesting subject. Any serious interest in non-Red Arrow or non-PTC electric traction in PA is a true niche subject, and the life of C-15 is a niche within a niche. We have something pretty rare in common!

I've long been an armchair historian of LVT's Liberty Bell Route, and have acquired several photos of C-15 in various stages of its multi-owner career. I attended an LVT historical presentation given several years ago by railfan author Dale Woodland (of Reading Company fame). He mentioned that C-15's carbody was displayed at Magee atop short (approx 3' tall) piles of timber cribbing. A late 1960s postcard view confirms this. Prior to Agnes, the trucks were either stored elsewhere at Magee, or already transferred to Ed Blossom's 801 restoration site in Topton, PA, outside of Kutztown.

Anyhow, according to Mr. Woodland the flash-flooding in Bloomsburg was so rapid & destructive that C-15's carbody was washed away - in his words, "it's probably at the bottom of the Susquehanna River". It's possible that this is hyperbole, and that what he really meant is that it was washed away some distance, recovered, and found so crippled & ravaged by the flood that it was essentially ruined. (That's my guess.)

I hope that this account, while both curious and depressing, helps put a few ghosts to rest. If you've further questions, please ask.

jdstrolley:

Wow! Two posts five minutes apart concerning the same obscure topic! So that makes at least three of us who care.

Looking through some of my files here and found some directions to where the car was located which I had recieved from a friend a few years ago. I have no idea if the car is still there and don't really have the time to investigate it. If someone in the Bloomsburg area ever finds it that would be interesting to know. The car had been heavily stripped for the restoration of LVT 801.

"C15 was on a small lot owned by Carl "Nip" Cain along Fishing Creek, less than a mile from the museum. If you were going east on Interstate 80 from the Buckhorn exit, you could look down off the bridge over Fishing Creek and Creek Road and see the body. "

Nip Cain, I believe was the trucker who moved many of the cars to Magee at Bloomsburg. I'm a huge fan of the Magee Museum collection and am always interested in the collection of trolley cars and their present museum homes. It is truly a shame the museum was not continued to be kept in operation by the family.

Joel

Thanks for the info.

I agree that the car body at least survived the Hurricane Agnes flood because recently published post-flood photos of the collection show it slightly tilted. It had been painted as a billboard for the Magee museum. There have been more floods in that area since 1972.