Nostalgia & History > Newark City Subway PCC Cars

Back when the Newark (NJ) City Subway operated vintage PCC cars, I would occasionally hop on a train to Penn Station and take a ride to the end of the line, round the loop, and head back to Penn. Here are a few photos I took along the line.

1. PCC 11, still in the Transport of New Jersey Bicentennial colors, is stopped at the soon to be replaced Orange Street Station. Here the subway crosses over the ex-DL&W Morris & Essex Line and the bridge is in need of replacement. To accommodate this work the station was moved across Orange Street to it’s present site.

2. PCC 14 outbound at Orange St. Station on March 28, 2001.

3. NJT motor flat 5223. Originally built in 1917 as Public Service Composite car 2683. It was converted to a motor flat work car in 1954.

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4. PCC 12 and motor flat 5223 meet at Davenport Avenue.

5. No tobacco chewing here! The sign in the shop area of Penn Station spells it out quite clearly.

6. On August 24th 2001 I rode the Newark City Subway for the last time. That was the last day of PCC car service. The cars had been running since 1954, but it sure seemed to me that they still had a lot more life left in them. NJ Transit, to their credit, did a nice job of giving these cars a grand send-off. Car # 6 was painted in the grey paint scheme of Public Service Coordinated Transport. It looked great in it’s new shiny paint on that warm sunny day. It was quite a nice gesture for NJT to completely repaint a piece of equipment that only had one more day of revenue service. Here PCC 6 in it’s brand new retro Public Service paint job crosses Orange Street.

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7. Orange Street was the location I went to the most. It is at street level with plenty of room to move around and even take broadside views of the PCCs as they crossed Orange Street, at the time it was the only grade crossing on the subway. PCC 28 in a wide view of the Orange Street grade crossing.

8. This is one of my favorite PCC photos. It shows car 15 seen from inside car 1 near Franklin Street.

9. Interior of PCC 19.

Enjoy!
Ken Gear

PCCs

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Newark cars 1-30 were former Twin City Rapid Transit (Minneapolis-St. Paul) cars 320-339, 360-364, and 415-419. At 9'0" wide, these cars were 8" wider than standard PCC's, enough difference to be noticeable in their pictures.

Thanks for posting.

-Larry Doyle



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/18 12:02 by LarryDoyle.

Great coverage. My favorite is number four with the work motor meeting the PCC.
Bob

Outstanding coverage of the Newark PCC cars.

Rich

Good series. Thanks for sharing with us.

Interesting photo series and narratives.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

I like that SPITTING SMOKING sign. Here in San Francisco we were a little more formal - the old two man cars had signs that used the word EXPECTORATION (or a variation of it - I forget the exact word) instead of SPITTING.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> Newark cars 1-30 were former Twin City Rapid
> Transit (Minneapolis-St. Paul) cars 320-339,
> 360-364, and 415-419. At 9'0" wide, these cars
> were 8" wider than standard PCC's, enough
> difference to be noticeable in their pictures.
>
> Thanks for posting.
>
> -Larry Doyle

Thanks for the info, Larry, I was wondering if some of these weren't ex-TCRT cars!

Notice in the first shot, the destination sign says "Chartered". That must have been
a rare move on the Newark Subway. Does anyone know what that might have been about?

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:
> Notice in the first shot, the destination sign
> says "Chartered". That must have been
> a rare move on the Newark Subway. Does anyone
> know what that might have been about?
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA



This photo was from the first time I rode the Newark subway. It is also the only time I photographed the PCCs before they were equipped with pantographs. The occasion was an Electric Railroad’s Association fan trip that ran on May 24, 1987. In the morning we rode a farewell to the PATH K class cars and after lunch we rode the subway and toured the shop at Penn Station.
Ken Gear

Note that several 2001 photos show the modern pantograph, while one photo shows the trolley pole.

The updating of NJT wires caused the change.

Thanks for the great sequence.

Posted from Android

That change to pantographs occurred only a short time (perhaps a year) before the PCC car retirement.

I was able to get one last ride in on the PS painted car with my oldest son just before their retirement he was a year old at the time. He is graduating high school next week. Can't believe it is that long ago....

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Note that several 2001 photos show the modern
> pantograph, while one photo shows the trolley
> pole.
>
> The updating of NJT wires caused the change.
>
> Thanks for the great sequence.
>
> Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/18 13:06 by cjvrr.