There seems to be some interest in the cars of Brooklyn, so I decided to put up several pages which include the older cars, the Peter Witts, the PCCs, and the work cars. This in not all inclusive, but only a glimpse of the cars which gave their name to a baseball team. They were originally known as the "Trolley Dodgers."

Here are a couple of cars built by Brill in 1909. There was obviously some rebuilding done over the years.

This car was equipped for multiple unit operation during World War I, but it was rebuilt in the 1920s for single car operation.

These convertible cars all look to be built by Laconia in 1906, but my roster information only applies to the 4000s. The 3737 is on the tracks of the New York Elevated, while the 3904 is in use as a waiting room at the Stillwell Avenue elevated station for passengers for the Nortons Point line of the South Brooklyn Ry. 4191 is single ended while the 4500s are double ended.

And lest we forget, Brooklyn was the home of many Birneys. Quite a few were sold to other cities.

7184 was built by Brill Car Co in August 1919, #20760, as Nassau Electric Ry 7184.

7203 was built by Cincinnati Car Co in March 1919, #2395, as South Brooklyn Ry 7003.  It was renumbered 7203 in 1919 and sold as Bush Terminal RR 1 in 1933.

Karl Groh of Jupiter, FL is a retired NYCTA employee and one-time pillar of the ERA and Branford Museum. He does not own a computer but Bill Volkmer sent him a copy of this page for comment.

"About the old MU cars, only two were done: 3300 and 3301. The view of 3301 in Crosstown Depot I've seen before, shown here o/o/s before scrapping. The 2 cars on the top are 700s, left one at W. 5th St. term., Coney Island, and right one at 39th and New Utrecht. The 700s were put into storage in 1936 (when the PCCs arrived) in middle (2nd floor) of 58^th St. Depot and "hauled out" in 1942 for wartime service, running on West End (surface) and 86th St. lines until 1947. YES Right, as built had open platforms and were semi-convertibles with 22E trucks. Rebuilt with 39E trucks and moveable sash windows. 700s = 8 windows, rest (2300, 2500, 2700, 2900, 3100, 3300) = 10 windows. Only a handful left, but did yeoman duty during the war. The "4000's" were 3700, 3900 ,4100, 4300 & 4500s. All similar but 4100s were single-ended and made one man, along with about a dozen 4300s. The rest remained open-platform, 2 man cars and none in passenger service after 1935, except 8 cars rebuilt into single-end 1 man 4700s for use on the Canarsie Shuttle. On extremely busy summer Sundays, some 4500s were pressed into service on the shuttle as 2-man cars after 1935, but only until about 1940. 4100s hauled the 6000 series trailers until banned. The rest of "4000's" were relegated to work service, made excellent tow cars, and some were converted to salt cars for winter snow fighting. 4573 in Branford was spared. It became an auxiliary "locker room" in 58th St. Depot and was in good condition in 1948 when fans requested fantrips in it and request was granted for fund raising to ship the car to Branford. The rest is, as they say, history. The 4500 in upper left of Page 2 of 2 is at Canarsie Shore and was in summer service when and if needed. The color shot is 4573 on one of the 3 fund-raising fantrips. Work service cars were painted BROWN and 4550 was cleaned up and ran one fantrip after 4573 left for Branford. It wound up in Pittsburgh, I believe, where it was considerable rebuilt according to one view I saw a while back.

That shot of Birney 7184 is a GEM. GREENPOINT line, NOT Greenpoint Ave., there was never a Greenpoint Ave. line BUT the Calvary Cemetary line ran on Greenpoint Ave. from the Greenpoint Ave. ferry on the east River to the Cemetary. It was abandoned without replacement in January 1930. The GREENPOINT line (17) ran between the Crosstown Depot = Box Street and Manhattan Ave. and Ken Ave. and Broadway Williamsburgh. via Franklin Street and Kent Ave. on the waterfront. Originally terminated at Borough Hall via Kent Ave. Washington Street and MyrtleAve. That was discontinued in 1941 and the entire line was discontinued without replacement in November 1945. Car 783 held down the run (one car line) until it broke down and an 1100 was substituted and I rode that. Birney 7184 MAY have been photographed in downtown Brooklyn, but I'm not sure of that. NICE PHOTO anyway." KFG

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1/17/2008

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