East Troy Electric Railroad Museum

Milwaukee Electric 846

Car 846 was built by the St Louis Car Company in 1920 for the Milwaukee Transport Company. It was modernized for one man operation in 1925 and new light fixtures were added. Treadle doors came later. Milwaukee had their own designs for their streetcars and each class was similar in size and looks. This is an 800 class car which can be identified by the slimmer middle front window and a slight arch to the standee windows. 846 operated over most of the lines including the #10 line which stayed open the longest. In 1958, the car was retired to the Kentucky Railroad Museum and was damaged by two major floods. Most of the wood had rotted away and between 50+ years of Wisconsin winters and road salt, the body was a rusted shell. The car was made availabe to Trolleycar '86 in 1983 and it was hoped the car would be restored in time for the 1986 centenniel of streetcar operations in Appleton. Unfortunately, the car was not able to operate until 1998 on August 16. Using a diesel generator donated by the president of Lands' End, car 846 runs like it did 50 years ago. Everything from the sashes down is new sheet metal, the entire roof was redone and new canvas was applied. Every piece of window glass was made special for this car. The Museum gets lots of visitors from the greater Milwaukee area who remember riding these cars to the ballgame or to the shopping centers. This car is a Must See for trolley fans, a true cream puff. There are only five rescued cars from the Milwaukee system, we have two of them, currently 846 is the only car in revenue service out of the five, but we hope the others will be running again soon. 846 is currently non-operational due to issues with its motors. Significant bearing work and rewinding is needed. The car is currently on display in the East Troy car barn.