M454?

[Kenneth Josephson]

Happy New Year,

I was told by fellow PTM members that after being used as a work motor (snow
scraper?) and occasional fan trip car, the M-454 was used to store spare parts
salvaged from the scrapped GE 1700s and other cars that weren't retained for the
Early Action program.

The car sat for several years and the roof began to leak (as is often the case
with neglected vintage trolleys.) By the time the car was available to PTM, the
rot had reached the point where a decision had to be made. PTM already had a high
floor car and since the M-454 had deteriorated to the point of being in much
worse condition, the decision was made to use it for parts to restore its sister
car.  I am willing to wager that if PTM did not already have a high floor car,
efforts would have been made to retain the M-454 for future restoration.

As usual, I welcome comments and corrections to what I have written above. Ken J.

AProchek at aol.com wrote:

> Hey,
> Someone kindly give me the history of this car - I have pictures of it in
> WVD's book running around Pittsburgh on a fan trip in the '60s but in
> reviewing an old trolley fair I see it was scrapped.  A real shame - probably
> not too many high floor cars around; 3487 seems to have been near-permanently
> sidelined and I don't what's going on with 4140