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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 available 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.
In the year 2000, 846 made it's way down to the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum and now is commonly used in operations. 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.
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Last modified: May 14 2010 12:46:31. All of the material in this site, except as
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