Public Service Coordinated Transport 27

Facts and Figures

Current Number	27
Railway Represented	Public Service Coordinated Transport
Builder	St. Louis Car Company
Built In	1949
Builder's order id	1670
Currently in (State)	Connecticut
--(Locality)	East Haven
Totally out of svc date	1990
(Initial retirement date)
Car Type	streetcar
-subtype	PCC, postwar
-designation
Status	stored inoperable
More info	http://www.bera.org/cgi-bin/viewcar.pl?car=27
Gauge	4'8.5"
Construction	steel
Roof type	AR
Ended	SE
Length	46'5"
Width	9'0"
Height	10'2"
Weight
#Seats	54
#Wheels/Conf.	8
Total HP	220
Trucks	Clark B2
Brakes	Electric
Compressor	n/a
Control	GE 17KM12N2
Motors	GE 1220E1 (4)
Voltage (if not 600DC)
Notes	Lettered GCRTA 27, to be restored as PSCT 27

Car 27 in storage at Branford in 2004
New Dave's Rail Pix
photo: http://newdavesrailpix.com/hicks/htm/usr_h_museum_shoreline_tcrt416_20040517_fh_hicks276.htm

Car 27 on display at Branford in 2016
Akron Railroad Club
photo: https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/amtraking-east-in-search-of-trolleys-and-other-delightful-railroad-museum-pieces-in-connecticut/

Car History by Frank Hicks

Public Service of New Jersey 27 The only postwar PCC car in the BERA collection, PSNJ 27 was originally built as part of the last order of streetcars built for the Minneapolis/St. Paul streetcar network. Originally TCRT 416, this car was built for two-man operation but was converted to one-man configuration within two years after construction. But the car's career in Minnesota was very short-lived: after only four years, TCRT replaced all of its streetcars with buses and put its PCC's up for sale. Thirty of them were bought by PSNJ, which decided to upgrade the 18-year old Newark City Subway rather than replace it with bus service. Car 27 spent the next 25 years of its life shuttling back and forth along the four-mile Newark subway route until it was bought by the Cleveland RTA for service on the Shaker Heights line. In this capacity it was used largely as a back-up for the older Shaker Heights PCC's, which were failing frequently, and for the new Breda light rail vehicles that were just being delivered. After 1982 the PCC's retained by the RTA were only rarely used, and in 1990 car 27 was acquired by MTM and moved to Minneapolis. There it was stored under a tarp at the Jackson Street Roundhouse for a little over a decade; with the completion of restoration work on another similar Minneapolis PCC, MTM deemed the car unneeded and sold it to BERA. Plans are in place to restore it as a PSNJ car.

Ownership History

Owner	Car Num	From	To	Preservation?	Loan?
Twin City Rapid Transit (Minnesota, St. Paul)	416	1949	1953	NO	NO
Public Service Coordinated Transport (New Jersey, Newark)	27	1953	1971	NO	NO
Transport of New Jersey (New Jersey, Newark)	27	1971	1977	NO	NO
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (Ohio, Cleveland)	27	1977	1990	NO	NO
Minnesota Transportation Museum (Minnesota, St. Paul)	27	1990	2001	YES	NO
Branford Electric Railway Association (Connecticut, East Haven)	27	2001	present	YES	NO