Nostalgia & History > J.G. Brill Company Streetcars

During the history of the old United Railway & Electric Company, then the Baltimore Transit Company, the majority of the streetcars purchased that operated in Baltimore were bought from the J.G. Brill Company.  Brill manufactured outstanding cars up in Philadelphia and these included all the Brill Semi-convertible cars and 100 of the Peter Witt cars that were purchased to operate in Baltimore.  However, it always amazed many historians as to when the PCC Streetcars were manufactured, the majority purchased in the United States came from the St. Louis Car Company and others from Pullman Standard Company.  The Brill Company built all kinds of Inter-urban cars and was considered the largest manufacturer of these cars in general.  Since the Baltimore Transit Company had an excellent relationship with Brill, they decided to purchase a Brill modern PCC type car.  They purchased only one.  Unfortunately, the transit company was not satisfied with the car overall, thus they never ordered any more of these cars.  The one Brill car operated on several BTC routes, primarily it stayed on the #8 line.  Anyhow, when the transit company started converting the streetcar lines to bus operations, as more lines were converted, many of the older PCC's became surplus and therefore were sent to the scrap yards.  Unfortunately, the Brill car was also purged from the fleet of cars and sent to the scrap yard.  Photo one shows the Brill car #7501 in the original paint scheme on the #8 line getting ready to go into the car barn, photo two which has been shown on here before show the car on the #31 line, and photo 3 shows the car in the scrap yard.  From a historic part, it's a shame the car was not saved since it was a one-of-a-kind.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

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Interesting.

Did the Brills have the same advanced features, such as dynamic brakes, hands-free operation, rheostatic control and other amenities, as the Pullmans and St. Louis products?

-LD

Great photos - How sad!
Bob

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> Interesting.
>
> Did the Brills have the same advanced features,
> such as dynamic brakes, hands-free operation,
> rheostatic control and other amenities, as the
> Pullmans and St. Louis products?
>
> -LD
Larry, though I have been a long-time member of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, I really don't know the answer.  The one person who would know is the PCC expert at the museum, John Engleman.  John has been following streetcars since he was a youngster and he spearheaded the saving of PCC car 7407 for the museum back in 1964.  John is also involved with the rebuilding of PCC car 7303 at the present time.  Contact him by E-Mail jve7407@verizon.net.  He will respond.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Very NICE except for the last picture.

Larry