PVRT #1300 restored to mid-1930s livery

When the Parsons Vale Rapid Transit was built, they bought a largish handful of cars from St Louis Car to handle passenger traffic. Most of them went out of service in the late 1940s, when the WW2 traffic boom faded away, but one was kept for summer service between Concord & Laconia until the day when the Winnisquam bridge failed (it was running a trip up to Laconia at the time, but was still south of Franklin when the bridge failed and dropped motor 1018 into the non-briny deep.)

After the bridge collapsed, it was switched to MOW service (becoming PV&T #M965 after the PVRT was leased in 1965) until it was retired and stored in 1966. But instead of going to scrap, it lingered in the Franklin carbarn until that property was demolished, and then went to Portland to be restored as a museum/fantrip car.

It still operates today.

  • Copyright © 2024 by Jessica L. Parsons (orc@pell.portland.or.us) unless otherwise noted
    Sun Dec 03 14:59:26 PST 2023