PV&T 108P painted green before donation to the Seashore Trolley Museum

The first interurban cars on the PV&T were an order of 20 wooden cars from Niles Car & Manufacturing to operate on the Manchester to Brattleboro electrification. They worked well, but soon ran into their limitations (when the electrification was extended to Albany they were assigned to Manchester to Albany expresses, but had a considerable amount of trouble on the stiff grades of the Green Mountains subdivision) and were shuffled off to the less taxing duties of being off-peak commuter cars on the line out of Boston.

By the end of the 1930s they were all out of service except for 4 cars (102P, 103P, 107P & 108P) which had been converted to line cars. These cars soldiered on for another 50 years or so before finally going out of service and being scrapped, donated to trolley museums, or used for storage.

D&H line car #M955 in MOW red

In 2005, the now rapidly expanding AC electrification required more line cars and the ex-102P was pulled out of the siding it was stored on to be rebuilt with the world’s tiniest multi-system drivetrain, then sent down to Carbondale for the D&H to use on their maze of branches in the Wyoming Valley. It still operates today, but is barely recognizable as a Niles product.

  • Copyright © 2024 by Jessica L. Parsons (orc@pell.portland.or.us) unless otherwise noted
    Thu Dec 07 23:18:35 PST 2023