ILLINOIS TERMINAL 170
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
BY FRANK G. HICKS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Development of the Birney
Galesburg
Alton
St. Louis
Preservation
Condition
Appendix A: Mechanical Specifications
Appendix B: Rail & Wire Accounts
Bibliography
Alton car 170, now preserved at IRM, operates through
downtown Alton
around 1935. Stephen Scalzo Collection.
When small-town street railway systems were at the precipice
of extinction in the years following the First World War, the one thing that
bought many of them a reprieve was the Birney car. Arguably the most standardized streetcar
design in the history of electric railways in America, the Birney was – as with
so many successful designs – not so much a transformational leap in technology
as it was a marriage of several different designs and technologies that had
already been proven. The design was for
a lightweight, single-truck “safety car” that could help street railways cut
costs and improve efficiency.
One of the foremost innovators in lightweight single-truck
car design during the mid-1910s was the Illinois Traction System. The ITS operated a sizable network of
interurban lines across central Illinois
and also had a number of subsidiary street railway operations in small- and
medium-size cities across the state. One
was in Galesburg, Illinois,
a town of about 25,000 people located 50 miles south of Rock Island.
The Galesburg system was one of dozens that ordered Birney cars at the
peak of their popularity, around 1920, and operated them until the end of
streetcar service in that city. Most
then made their way to the system in Alton,
Illinois, where they remained
until they were scrapped after cessation of streetcar service. Except, that is, for one car, number 170,
which after an unlikely stint in the St. Louis
interurban subway found its way into preservation as the only Birney from Illinois to be
preserved.
Stephen Scalzo’s previously unpublished research
into the history of the Galesburg and Alton street railway systems was
invaluable in writing up the history of car 170, as was his provision of
in-service photos of the Alton Birneys.
Don Ross and Don Leistikow, who were closely involved in saving car 170
in 1957, provided photos and information about the car following acquisition by
IERM. Bob Bruneau, who helped maintain
and gather parts for the car during the 1970s and 1980s, provided information
on its current condition.
By the mid-1910s, all of the significant design
characteristics that would be incorporated into the Birney car had been
developed. The earliest was its small
four-wheel design, which was a throwback to the earliest electric streetcars
built in the 1880s. Those cars had
evolved by the turn of the century into larger double-truck streetcars; by 1910
the majority of street railway companies were ordering double-truck cars and
only the smallest operations were ordering four-wheel cars. However as traffic levels began to fall
during the late 1910s, interest in more economical four-wheel cars increased.
Much of what made the Birney car so economical to operate
was its lightweight design, another major distinguishing feature. Electric streetcars had been getting
progressively larger and heavier since their invention, but by the early 1900s
the disadvantages of running large, heavy cars were becoming obvious. Excessive electrical power usage and
increased wear and tear on the track made the cars expensive to operate. Lightweight cars that could stand up to the
stress of daily operation could not be developed until the advent of steel car
construction late in the first decade of the century; during the 1910s steel
construction was refined and the per-passenger weight of streetcars dropped by
nearly half from its high during the wood construction era.
Builder's photo of Galesburg car 15. This car was from the same order as car 170, which was originally numbered 7. American Car Company photo, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Collection.
The third significant feature of the Birney was that it
could be operated by a single man. The
majority of streetcars at the turn of the century were operated by two men, a
motorman and a conductor. One-man
operation had existed since some of the earliest horse-drawn streetcars but as
streetcars increased in size, the larger passenger loads required a conductor
whose role it was to collect fares.
Around 1905, difficulties in fare collection were eased by the invention
of the Pay As You Enter (PAYE) system, where passengers paid as they boarded
rather than paying a roaming conductor.
This helped to make one-man operation possible; as long as people passed
the motorman as they boarded, he could take fares and make change from his
station.
One significant drawback of one-man operation was safety: if
the operator suffered a heart attack or was otherwise incapacitated while the
car was in motion, there was no one else on the crew to bring the car to a safe
stop. The solution was the fourth major
characteristic of the Birney and the last one to be developed: “safety car”
equipment. Safety car equipment was
developed with the goal of stopping the car safely in the event the operator
became incapacitated and was the brainchild of J.M. Bosenbury of the Illinois
Traction System. Bosenbury developed a
control system that would automatically stop the streetcar if the operator let
go of the controller, a feature known as “dead man” control for its addressing
of the problem of the operator dying suddenly.
Safety car equipment was first used on ITS streetcars built in 1913 and
was applied to all Birney cars built.
Builder's photo showing the interior of the Galesburg Birneys, of which car 170 was one. Note the spartan interior. American Car Company photo, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Collection.
In 1915, several different car companies began
constructing single-truck lightweight safety cars of generally similar design
and appearance, but it was in 1916 that the Stone & Webster Company, which
owned a number of electric railways spread across the country, ordered cars of
this type from the American Car Company in St. Louis.
The car design work was done by Charles O. Birney, a Stone and Webster
employee, and American – a Brill subsidiary – began selling cars conforming to
this design to other cities. With the
end of the First World War the popularity of the design exploded and soon the
American plant in St. Louis couldn’t handle all
of the orders; starting with an order for 200 cars for Brooklyn in 1919 the
main Brill plant in Philadelphia
began building Birney cars as well. At
the same time competitors like St. Louis Car Company and Cincinnati Car Company
were building cars to essentially the same design, and soon similar designs for
double-truck or curve-sided versions of the Birney car were being produced as
well.
It was with smaller streetcar systems in smaller cities that
the Birney car found its true niche, and the Galesburg Railway Lighting &
Power Company (GRL&P) was typical of Birney customers. Galesburg
had had streetcars since its first horse car line had been built in 1885. In 1892 the Galesburg Electric Motor &
Power Company had absorbed the horse car lines and begun electric operations,
with route extensions gradually expanding the size of the system over the
ensuing 25 years. In 1903 the system was
sold to the McKinley Syndicate, whose subsidiary Illinois Traction System (ITS)
operated a network of interurban lines and several city systems in Illinois, and was soon rechristened
the Galesburg Railway & Light Company.
Route expansions and equipment acquisition continued and by the end of
World War I the company was operating 36 streetcars over 21.6 miles of track.
It was right at this time that the ITS was energetically
working to modernize the fleets of its various city operations, and in 1919 the
GRL&P was granted permission to operate one-man streetcars in Galesburg. An order for 20 Birney cars, numbered 1-20,
was placed with the American Car Company and the new cars arrived in January
1921. Although automobile competition
was affecting passenger levels, expansions continued; a rural line to nearby
Abingdon was purchased from People’s Traction Company in 1923. Shortly thereafter, a corporate
reorganization of the ITS changed the ownership of the Galesburg street railway system. It was now a subsidiary of Illinois Power
& Light Company (IP&L) and lost its GRL&P name, becoming simply the
IP&L Galesburg Division.
Galesburg Birney 12 is shown in service in the only currently-known photo of a Birney in operation in Galesburg. Stephen Scalzo Collection.
The Galesburg
lines, only marginally profitable even in the best of times, continued to lose
passengers. A review undertaken by
IP&L concluded that the company could not justify major capital investment,
such as that required when streets were to be repaved and the railway company
was required to rebuild its tracks. It
became company policy to abandon streetcar lines as repaving projects arose.
In 1924 the eight-mile line to Knoxville was suspended, reinstated briefly
in 1925, then permanently abandoned in favor of buses in 1926. Meanwhile the line to Abingdon, bought only
two years earlier, was abandoned in 1925.
The following year saw one of the busier Galesburg routes, the North Broad Street line, partially
converted to bus, followed by the rest of the North Broad Street line and the Clark Street line
in 1928. By this time the 20-car Birney
fleet had been reduced to 14 cars; three had been transferred to the IP&L
Jacksonville Division in 1927 and three more sold to Jefferson City, Missouri
in 1928. By mid-1929 ridership had
fallen off so much that only eight of the 14 cars were required to hold down
service.
The Galesburg lines
requested regulatory authority to abandon all streetcar operations in mid-1930
but the request was declined; however by the following summer it was clear that
streetcar service was doomed and authority to abandon the street railway system
in Galesburg
was granted. The last cars ran on April
30, 1931 and the wires were all down within a week.
The fourteen remaining Galesburg Birney cars were stored on
a siding east of the car barn for nearly a year, until in February 1932 the
cars were all transferred to the IP&L Alton Division. Alton, a city
on the east bank of the Mississippi just north
of St. Louis,
had been an early adopter of street railways.
Its first horse car line had been built in 1867, steam dummy service had
begun in 1889, and its first electric streetcars had been put into service in
1895 by the Alton Railway & Illuminating Company.
In 1904 the Alton Granite
& St. Louis (AG&SL) had been formed to take over the Alton
city system, then consisting of 16 miles of track and 18 streetcars, and to
build a suburban electric line south along the Illinois bank of the river to East St. Louis. Lines were built to Edwardsville and to East St. Louis via East Alton and Granite City.
Acquisition of the AG&SL by the East St. Louis & Suburban in 1906
meant that the streetcar fleet in Alton grew in size, the beneficiary of
various cars transferred in from other ESL&S routes, however the AG&SL
was still operated as an independent company.
As in
Galesburg,
decreasing ridership hit the AG&SL hard following World War I; the company
went into receivership in August 1920.
The receiver pledged to put the funds raised by a hasty fare hike into
property improvements and, like so many smaller street railways, one obvious
way to improve operations was to purchase Birney cars. Ten Birney cars were purchased from the
American Car Company in 1921 and the older cars kept in service were converted
to one-man operation.
Alton Birney 163 is seen in operation in 1933, not long after it was acquired from the Galesburg system. Stephen Scalzo Collection.
Ridership continued to fall; the State Hospital
line was abandoned in 1925 and in 1926 the courts ordered that the AG&SL,
still in receivership, be broken up. The
Alton Railway Company took over city operations, with 28 streetcars operating
over 20 miles of track. In 1930, the
operation was purchased by IP&L, by which time operations had been reduced
to 19 cars operating over 15.6 miles of track.
Then in March 1931 the Alton
system was sold again, this time to the newly-formed Illinois Terminal
Transportation Company (ITTC), a subsidiary of the Illinois Terminal Railroad.
Alton car 172 in operation during the 1930s. Robert E. Bruneau Collection.
The ITTC purchased the 14 Galesburg Birney cars, which
were in better condition than the ten worn-out Alton Birneys, and moved them to
Alton to
maintain service there. The cars were
renumbered into the 160-173 series, with Galesburg
car 7 becoming Alton
car 170. It was only a matter of time,
though, as ridership continued to fall during the depths of the
Depression. Buses replaced streetcars on
parts of Broadway, College Avenue
and Washington Street
in 1933 and the Middletown
line was abandoned at the end of the year.
By 1935 only eight of the Birney cars were needed to hold down service
and in early 1936 authority to abandon all streetcar service in Alton was granted. The last Birney ran on August 27, 1936.
Alton Birney 169 is at Alby & 6th Streets on Memorial Day 1935, only a year or so before the end of streetcar service in Alton. Stephen Scalzo Collection.
The remaining Alton Birneys were operated under power, with
disabled cars being towed by operating ones, to LaClede Steel to be
scrapped. The one car that escaped
scrapping was car 170, the body of which was removed from its running gear and
given to the Illinois Terminal Railroad.
The Birney body was transferred to downtown St. Louis, where it was placed in the subway
at the entrance to the IT St.
Louis terminal for use as a yard office and storage locker for the railroad’s
employees.
Car 170 remained there underground for over 20 years,
longer than it had been used in regular service and twice as long as either of
its previous assignments. During World
War II and the decline of IT interurban service in the 1950s, the Birney body
sat neglected alongside the tracks at the St.
Louis terminal.
It was used for storage and as a yard office.
In 1957, soon after Illinois Terminal interurban service had
ended and with only the suburban operation to Granite City remaining of the once-mighty IT
traction empire, the forlorn Birney got a reprieve. Members of the Illinois
Electric Railway
Museum in North Chicago purchased the car body. It was the first car body ever acquired by
the museum, but it was acquired with the intention of fitting it with the
truck, motors, and mechanical equipment off of a Birney that was being used by
the Cleveland Transit System as a work car.
This car, CTS 0800, had been built in 1920 for the Mahoning &
Shenango and was bought by Cleveland Railway in 1934 to use as a rail
grinder. Transferred to the CTS rapid
transit line in the mid-1950s, it was due to be scrapped in 1958. IRM arranged with the scrappers to cut up the
body and hold out the truck, motors and equipment for the museum, but in an
unfortunate mistake the instructions got garbled. Museum personnel discovered that the
scrappers had cut up the motors, wheels and much of the truck. Though some of the components needed for car
170 were saved, IRM ended up with only an incomplete “kit” of a truck along
with some miscellaneous parts.
Car 170 is shown at North Chicago in December 1957, six months
after acquisition, stored on cribbing.
On the right is North Shore 354 while behind it is wooden elevated
trailer 1268. Both have since been
restored. Don Ross Collection.
As a stopgap, car 170 was soon fitted with a Brill 21E truck
salvaged from Mason City &
Clear Lake
35. Though incorrect for this car, the
21E was used on many pre-Birney single-truck cars.
Unfortunately the museum was never able to find a correct 79E truck, so
the car still sits on the 21E truck it has had since its North Chicago days. The car was moved out to Union,
IL along with the rest of the Illinois Railway Museum
collection in 1964 and was generally stored outdoors until Barn 7 was built in 1985,
when it was moved into indoor storage and given a coat of Traction orange. Bob Bruneau rebuilt about half of the car’s
side windows around this time, and installed a set of seats in the car, but
other than that no significant restoration work was done. The car has been on display in either Barn 7
or Barn 8 for the past three decades in its incomplete and painted, partially lettered state.
It’s 1967 and car 170 is in Yard 1, the current
location of 50th Avenue
Station, with what appears to be Milwaukee
966 to the left and Sand Springs 68 in the right background. Don Ross Collection.
However, the car has been far from forgotten. It has periodically been the recipient of
efforts to collect parts for an eventual restoration, including door motors
salvaged out of a Birney body in Aurora,
Illinois and new-build 79E truck
parts procured in cooperation with other museums around 2010. GE 265 motors similar to what the car had originally are on hand, as
are most of the other mechanical and electrical parts that would be needed to
fully restore the car, and if the remaining missing truck components could be
replicated – as well as a pair of wheel sets, which would be no small task – then
the car could be placed on the correct truck and would be substantially
complete.
The body of car 170 has suffered from some rust, but overall
is in fair condition. The side sheets
are rusted out along the floor line and the floor would likely need partial
replacement. The roof was tarpapered for
most of the car’s life outdoors and this prevented much damage to the interior
woodwork. The condition of the wooden
roof is uncertain but it is likely that some wood replacement would be necessary
if the car were to be restored. All
windows are present however the car’s original doors are missing; the doors
currently fitted to the car, dating to its days in the St. Louis subway, are from scrapped Illinois
Terminal interurban cars.
When it was located in
St. Louis the car was a stripped shell, but
most of the parts needed for car 170’s restoration have been procured by
IRM. Seats were found and are currently
located in the car. Controllers and
brake equipment are in storage, as are motors and an air compressor which can
be used under the car. Some components,
including doors, steps and resistance grids, are missing but have been
replicated for other projects in the past.
The largest missing item, of course, is the 79E truck, for which only
some parts are on hand. Journal boxes
were fabricated around 2010 and other replacement castings are currently being
sourced, of which wheel-and-axle sets would be the most expensive to obtain.
Car 170 in its current state, shown during switching in December 2009. Photo by Randy Hicks.
Built: American Car Company, 1921, order #1263
Length over bumpers: 27’10”
Width overall: 8’3”
Height overall: 11’10”
Height over running board: 10’0”
Height rail to floor: 2’4”
Total weight: 18,250 lbs
Seating capacity: 30
Fare register: International
Heaters: C.C.H.Co. single coil type
Motors: WH 508A (2)
Controllers: K-10Q (2)
Truck: Brill 79E
Wheelbase: 8’0”
Wheel diameter: 26”
Journal size: 3”x6”
Brakes: SME
Motorman’s valve: M28
Air compressor: DH-16
Emergency valve: E1
Governor: S6B
Brake cylinder: 8”x12”
Galesburg
livery: unknown two-tone color scheme
Alton livery: Traction orange; tile red doors, windows,
roof; black lettering, underbody; white herald with carmine red background
Information on the acquisition of, and early restoration
work on, car 170 does appear in several issues of Rail & Wire, the Illinois Railway Museum’s
newsletter, from the period.
Issue #2, March 1957 – “A Birney in Sight At Last”
At a special meeting of the Board of Directors on March 2nd,
approval was granted for purchase in whole or in part of Cleveland Transit
System #0800. This is the last Birney
owned by an American transit system and was used as a rail grinder. Since the body is not in the best of
condition, it was felt that the truck and electrical equipment could be applied
to one of the many bodies in this area.
Actual purchase is dependant on financial ability. Larry Goerges has started the ball rolling by
pledging $100. Any more contributors?
Issue #3, April 1957 – “More on the Birney”
The Illinois Terminal has offered to sell us a Birney body
for $50 if we will move it from Saint
Louis. It looks
more and more in favor of our finally having a Birney. Our biggest need is financial aid. Now about some donations to the Birney fund?
Issue #5, June 1957 – “Another Car”
Last month we mentioned that it looked as if we would have a
Birney. We got it!! On June 9th, a semi-tractor and
trailer rolled into North Chicago after a day
and a half trip from Saint Louis
with our Birney. Upon arrival it didn’t
look like much as it had almost two decades of accumulated dirt from the
Illinois Terminal subway where it had been used as a yard office. After it had been unloaded on cribbing,
members went to work on it with a hose and a couple of boxes of Soilax. It wasn’t too long before it began to glisten
in Traction Orange with maroon trim.
Even the old number from Alton
came through-170. Since then, a
headlight has been installed and broken windows have been replaced. Negotiations are going forward on purchase of
parts from the Cleveland Transit System #0800 rail grinder Birney.
On June 29th, a group travelled to Long Lake, Wisconsin,
to strip the body of North Shore Birney #333 which has been used as a shed
since 1949. This was in the nick of time
as the owner plans to burn the 333 for scrap in the immediate future. A number of necessary fittings were secured
as were a few other usable parts for some of our other cars. The group consisted of Larry Goerges, Dave Shore,
Joe Barth, Jim Becker, and Don Ross. The
mosquitoes of the area were happy to see such a large group out for supper.
The gang involved in moving the 170 from Saint Louis
included Don Leistikow, Walt Murphy, Larry Goerges, Dave Shore, Tom Jervan, and
Don Ross. Thanks also go to the two
drivers from Geuder Paeschke & Frey who handled the big job of wheeling the
truck over 700 miles.
Issue #6, September 1957 – “Birney”
As reported in our last issue we have now purchased Birney
#0800 from Cleveland. Howie Odinius and Walt Murphy went down to Cleveland to scrap the
car and save the parts we need.
Unfortunately, after their departure the scrap dealer took more than he
was authorized and then refused to pay for what he had taken. This is a case of really being taken to the
cleaners. Walt, who doubles in brass as
Counsel, is now taking legal steps to recover what is rightfully ours.
Issue #10, December 1958 – “North Chicago Notes”
170 – Status quo. The
search is still going on for a truck for our Birney. Meanwhile it is serving as additional storage
space, and it too is overcrowded.
Issue #20, July-August 1962 – “Car Progress Report”
Lastly, work has commenced on preserving Illinois Terminal
#170, our Birney. Warren Cobb spent
several Saturdays removing the rust, stains, etc. from her sides and has primed
and painted orange everything below the belt rails. The windows have been cleaned, reglazed and
painted yellow. The doors, which are not
correct for the car, have been given a fast cleaning and one is painted red
with yellow window trim – the other to match soon. We are perhaps a step closer to restoration
of this car. July 27 and 28 Bob Bruneau
and Warren Cobb drove a truck to Mason City, Iowa where they picked up a Brill
21E truck from the Iowa Terminal Railroad, belonging to the Connecticut Electric
Railway Ass’n. This truck has the proper
journal boxes for the Birney and it is hoped they may be exchanged for some
others we have at the Museum. Suffice it
to say that those were long, long miles, all 750 of them.
Issue #25, May-June 1963 – “Car Progress Report”
Illinois Terminal #170: Long left unattended because of the
substation, this car has received only a little work until a week ago. Cobb had replaced the headlight and repainted
the south end windows, posts, etc. On
the 4th, Bob Bruneau and Warren Cobb removed everything from the
roof to start the job of rebuilding. One
small spot was found where the roof had been on fire – possibly caused by a
trolley wire break, way back in the days.
Issue #26, July-August 1963 – “Car Progress Report”
The Birney car (#170) now sports a new roof – of sorts. Warren Cobb, with plenty of assistance from
Bob Bruneau, “stripped” the roof of vents, etc. and has replaced about half of
the roof boards with new 3/8 plywood, a not unpleasant task with Miss Ellyn Rogge
helping with the painting. The roof is
now covered with 30 lb. felt paper, and to date has sprung no leaks.
Issue #27, September-October 1963 – “Car Progress Report”
The last little item of car progress is the completion
of the exterior woodwork on IT #170, our Birney. Ye editor has one letterboard to go and the
exterior will be complete, but with a new felt paper roof, the car now faces
the winter in better shape than in many years.
Bruneau, Robert E. Interview by author. Telephone. Chicago, IL.,
June 6, 2013.
Bruneau, Robert E., Warren Cobb, and Don Ross. “Car Progress
Report” et al. Rail & Wire, various issues (1957-1963).
Car Inventory Record.
St. Louis, Missouri:
Illinois
Terminal Railroad System, 1932.
Cox, Harold E. The
Birney Car. Harold E. Cox, 1966.
But there are always plenty of things to do. I installed both window wipers, recently repainted by Al. They look nice. Here you can see the shiny black wiper arms, and behind them the big blue handle inside. 
And then I worked for a while installing some more window shades. In this car, absent window shades are very obvious, compared to later designs such as the 309 where it's not so noticeable.
