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Fire Destroys Eight Historic Cars in Trolley Museum Collection

By Bob Cohen

If you will permit me this once we will have a bit of a Digression for a Personal, Yet Historic Perspective on the National Capital Trolley Museum and their current factual state.

Words can not alone explain the feelings of many following the tragic conflagration which consumed one of the two storage buildings in which were contained historic streetcars, trolleys and trams from around not only Washington, DC, and its environs but which spanned the Atlantic Ocean as well. For in those late night hours when most were asleep, eight count 'em, eight old cars of another era, were consumed in a fire of historic proportions on that night of September 27-28, 2003.

There has been, to put it mildly, much rampant speculation on a whole bunch of things regarding this fire in particular and the National Capital Trolley Museum in general. I will try to deal with both on a factual, consistent and unemotional level. Mind you, please: I am NOT an official spokesman for the Museum nor do I intend to set myself up as such, but I would like to separate fact from rampant fiction.

• FACT #1: Only Car House #1 burned with the 8 historic treasures inside. All the collection was NOT just in that one structure and thank goodness. Any other statements you might read are wholly, totally, false and untrue. There are still 7 more cars in Car House #2 plus there are 4 other historic cars either in storage off site or under going restoration. This includes the classic trademark car of the Museum, CTC # 766. Thank goodness for that, at least. Other cars very much intact and unharmed are as follows: DCT PCC #1101; TARS #678; TTC PCC #4603; the Hague PCC; DCT #522 former rail grinder car; Dusseldorf Car #955 in which I sat talking to a museum visitor on that fateful Saturday afternoon; and Berlin #5954. CTC/DCT #1540 is off the site as are CTC #650 and the already mentioned DCT #766. I have made a pilgrimage to the site of the fire and it is devastation. Charred remains, burned metal, memories of a happier time. Only the walls of the car house remain intact with their contents still inside.
• FACT #2: Other than the Car house and the equipment inside which was destroyed, the entire rest of the railroad was entirely unaffected as was Car House #2. However, since the power delivery system which is immediately adjacent to the burned building, was affected to the extent that all connections to energize the overhead need to be reset by professionals in a safe manner, the Museum will be closed for an indefinite period. They will NOT be closing forever. The rectifier itself is unaffected. In addition, since the overhead trolley wire requires a certain amount of tension and that, too has been compromised, due to the intense heat, for the moment, no cars can be run for that reason as well. However, these things could happen in a fairly short period of time once the overhead can be secured and reconnected to the rectifier and the rubble is cleared from the burned structure. It will all happen and we will be riding cars again out at 1313 Bonifant Road. We just will not be doing it for the next few months while everything gets sorted out. Let's give the Museum time to get back up to speed and let's not unnecessarily burden them with untruths or half-truths or other wastes of time. It will happen. Just let it.
• FACT #3: As of this writing, just over a week after the fire, Lightning & Arson have been ruled out. And then came the word that it was electrical although the precise cause remained undetermined. That leads to lots of open speculation as to what the exact cause was. My advice: Let us permit the professional investigators do their job. Now is NOT the time to be a "foamer."
• FACT #4: While the eight cars in the car house have been destroyed, there will undoubtedly be some parts which can be salvaged and possibly reused. This includes Traction Motors, Trucks, Controllers and who knows what else. With a little luck, maybe even enough for patterns still exists. There may even be enough salvageable pieces from one or more of the cars to rebuild from making them like a true Phoenix rising from the ashes. But there, once again it's far too early to tell what can and can not be saved and salvaged. Patience; Patience.
• FACT #5: We are all drawn to disasters for some reason, just like a moth is attracted to a flame. The Titanic sank in 1912 and while there were survivors who testified at hearings on both sides of the Atlantic that it broke in two, those claims were totally discounted until Robert Ballard discovered the ship 73 years afterward with the two main pieces nearly a half-mile apart. Even today, 91 years after the sinking we still are drawn to the story. Similar scenario with regards to the Museum fire. Sometimes what we think happened or what we might hope happened, didn't transpire that way at all. We can't change that Titanic is on the Ocean floor or that we can not raise it; neither can we change the destruction of the eight trolley cars inside the Museum's storage building. But we can learn from these events and be better and stronger in the future.

Now for my real digression sorry but I just have to do it. I am a experienced operator of the cars out at both National Capital Trolley Museum and the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. Until this event I never felt compelled to "talk to the cars" or heaven forbid who could think of it; say "Goodbye." Hear my few brief thoughts and observations from the last 15 years' experiences.

Only now can I just begin to understand the feelings the old time engineers felt when "their engine" which had been permanently assigned to them was sent to the scrapper after 30 years. I have read these tales from another century and they were hard to grasp. But now ... I think I can just begin to understand. These objects of affections were alive ... believe me; they were. Listen...

Gone, forever are the Red Vienna Motor Car #6062 and its non-motorized trailer #7802. Ah the memories I have of operating you on spring and fall parade days at the National Capital Trolley Museum. These had become your only entries out of the car house of late. Your type "B" controller with its dynamic brake were a magnificent part of your persona. When applying and taking points of power in the controller with my left hand, first into series, then parallel,.... the surge of strength from those 2-motors, wonderful that they were, from beneath my feet was most gratifying, until it was time to retard, all too soon, and apply the dynamic brake from within, in smooth transition and at the same time, with my right hand, commence application of the holding brake until we had fully stopped, only to repeat the procedure again and again as we proceeded around the railroad. Ah, Vienna remember. What a whirly-gig in motion it took to harness your power. I remember your last time of operation last April well.

Graz; good old Green Graz; Car #120. Ah Graz, what memories you too, stir. A favorite you were. You sprung to life in the same manner as Vienna but here at the Museum you didn't have a trailer to tow and you were so responsive both in power and dynamic brake. Good-bye old friend. I'll miss you. I operated you many a time and what a delight you were, each time. You were a frequent and much-loved carrier at the Museum and will be long-remembered here. Sleep well my friend, sleep well that long ever-lasting sleep.

Snow Sweeper #026 (Capital Transit & DC Transit numbers; #051 Virginia) while your broom motor had been stilled for over 40 years, your traction motors were still just fine and what a delight you were. To think the roads you traveled. You were the last of your kind from another era. No more are extant from the path you traveled in Northern Virginia. You undoubtedly were the last traveler across the rails of the old 14th Highway Bridge; another long-gone relic from a by gone era. Your gong had been quiet for a while but we all knew you were still there in the back of Track #2, awaiting that call, which sadly will never come.

Snow Sweeper #07 from Washington, DC and the connected Maryland lines, all your natural life after manufacture. From when I originated the idea of a "Snow Sweeper Day" several years ago to showcase your 'stuff' you performed admirably - er'... except the time you decided to derail on me in the lower yard and pick that dad-burned switch but hey, we're among friends, I'm willing to forgive that small, little transgression. Okay? Each year in late March, Vernon Winn, Dave Baynes & myself would parade you up to the Visitors Center and you would strut your stuff, with each of us taking turns running in each direction, for the visitors and of course the running of your brooms (the REAL TREAT of the day, of course). Ah... the surge of power and strength from below. You had your last appearance this past March, as always, which now seems ever so more distant in the past and you performed with great honors as usual. Thank you old friend. and good-bye.

Ah 509: YOU had character and were the only car at the Museum to have a real voice, too, with that delightful whistle. With that chopped off end (done by Capital Transit in 1947) and different operating characteristics in each direction; I'll miss you too. You visited Rockville many a time during your first life and many a tale you could probably pass along, too. Were you there when the Mayor of Rockville wouldn't let you pass because of some disagreement with management nearly one hundred years ago? You passed by Vinson's Corner Drug Store and even Baseball great Walter Johnson's future home in Alta Vista among the many routes you trod as well. Rest now forever my friend, rest easy.

And now the real heartache comes Track #3. In the rear of the car house; St. Louis Car #1053, one of only 10 from that builder of an Experimental Streamliner design (1935) which would metamorphose onto the world stage only months later as the PCC, which we all grew to know and appreciate. 1053 I saw you that last Saturday afternoon of your life and you were still performing admirably. My memories of you run deep as well. Yeah you derned rascal, you; you liked to play tricks on us mortals, of not coming out of interlock (like you did last April, during Spring parade Remember?), but you finally saw the light, came around to the right way of thinking you old son of a gun you. You were a smooth rider, you were. I particularly have memories of your strange reverser & controller arrangement, especially when it came to that back-up controller of yours. Has anyone ever seen such a small, yet fully functional item of this sort? It looked like it was from the land of Lilliput, didn't it!

And last and surely, not least Johnstown #352. I had the least amount of operating time you, however what a delight you were to all who visited the Museum. You had all the sounds and looks and feel of a classic trolley car from a time almost forgotten. From that chugga-chugga-chugga of your air-compressor cutting on & off, those delightful rattan seats which filled the air with an era now long passed, to that deck roof. You were one of the, if not the FIRST cars of the Museum, even before there was a Museum and you went out of service here from the early 1970's until just a few years ago, but ... oh, you will be missed, friend. Rest in Peace, but remember, there are several of your brothers and sisters still remaining around the country to remind us of your kindness so we'll have all some relatives to visit. You, my friend had the honor of last power from beneath feet on that fateful Saturday. Remember....

Rest ye cars of inanimate form, rest, for the dead returneth, not. But, like the sparkling Concords that went before you down the dusty highroads of yesterday, your memories will live forever in the minds and hearts of men, trailing an unforgotten banner where once these little cars ran. So long old friends, so long. I bid you adieu.