Mass. Northeastern St. Ry. 116

In 1933, Massachusetts Northeastern Street Railway was sold at public auction and purchased by Massachusetts Northeastern Transportation Company. MNSRy took delivery of bus Number 116 in 1929. It would appear that since the company had not made the official decision to convert to buses, the No. 116 was initially used for training purposes. The only major modification made to the bus while in service was the replacement of it motor. It was originally powered by a Hall-Scott 4-cylinder motor, but it soon proved that the bus was severely underpowered, so it was replaced with a 6-cylinder flat head motor of Twin Coach design. Number 116 remained in service until 1963, spending its last years of service towing disabled buses back to the car barn in Merrimac, MA. It ended its career when it blew a head gasket while attempting to tow a bus back from the White Mountains of NH. It was then towed back to the Merrimac car barn, and was stored outside unserviceable. At some point, it was jacked up and the tires and rims were removed for use on other vehicles. The receivers were asking $10,000.00 for the bus, believing that after they had replaced the rims and tires the bus justified the cost since it was now an antique. However, it failed to be sold when the remaining equipment was auctioned off. The bus then became property of Brox Construction when they bought the Merrimac car barn property and the equipment on it. This included No. 116, plus a treasure trove of streetcar parts and tools. The Seashore Trolley Museum was able to recover some of the materials, notably two floor jacks for jacking up streetcars. No. 116 was purchased by a member of Seashore for the princely sum of $150.00 – a far cry from $10,000.00. Number 116 was the product of a bus industry in its infancy. Like the automobile business at the time, there were a lot of companies in the business and only the fittest survived. The evolution of the companies is a study unto itself. No. 116 was built by American Car and Foundry Motor Company in 1929. ACF Motors’ story begins with the creation of American Car & Foundry Company (ACF) in 1899. ACF was what is termed a ‘car trust’, and was a holding company with the goal of controlling the manufacturing of railroad rolling stock, interurbans and streetcars by eliminating competition by association, acquisition, hostile takeover or putting them out of business. When it was organized as a corporation in 1899, its 13 members represented 52% of rolling stock production, other than that produced by railroad-owned shops. By 1905, it controlled a total of 18 companies. At one point, there was talk of Pullman being absorbed by ACF. Its biggest competition in the streetcar and interurban market was J. G. Brill. In the 1920s, the demand for interurbans and streetcars began to decline, so ACF began looking for opportunities in forms of transportation. In 1922, ACF ventured into the rubber tired arena with the purchase of Carter Carburetor Corporation. ACF targeted the growing motor coach market, and began working with J. G. Brill on acquiring control of Hall-Scott Motor Company, maker of gasoline engines, Fageol Motors Company of Ohio and Fageol Motors Company of Oakland, manufacturers of coach bodies. American Car & Foundry Motors was incorporated in 1925 and controlled Hall-Scott and Fageol Motors Company of Ohio through stock ownership. In 1926, the holding company Brill Corporation was created to acquire the stock of ACF Motors and J. G. Brill. American Car and Foundry owned 65% of Brill Corporation’s stock. At the time of the creation of the holding company, the two subsidiaries controlled the following: American Car & Foundry Motors: 100% Hall-Scott 90% Fageol Motors Co. of Ohio J. G. Brill: 100% American Car Co. 100% Kuhlman Car Co. 100% Wason Manufacturing Co. 100% Cie J. G. Brill (France) Although controlled by Brill Corporation, ACF Motors and J.G. Brill were not merged together until 1944 to form the ACF-Brill Motors Company. American Car and Foundry Motors Company American Car & Foundries Motors Detroit, MI 1925-1932 Berwick, PA 1932-1944 ACF-Brill Motors Company Berwick, PA 1944-1946 ACF-Brill Subsidiary of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation Nashville, Tennessee 1946-1954 Museum Ownership: In 1964 Number 116 Brox Construction sold Number 116 to Frank J. Welch, a member of Seashore Trolley Museum. Inside the bus above the driver’s seat someone had written “Save old Hanks”, so the bus was nicknamed Nancy Hanks – the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Frank and Paul Castiglione became the team leaders for the restoration of the bus. While it was stored at the Merrimac site, the bus was vandalized – most of the glass had been broken. The spark plugs had been removed, and the cylinders filled with water. The bus was moved to a safer location Eastern Street Railway’s Lawrence, MA. car barn and moved again to a more secure location at Trombly Motor Coach Service on Lupine Road in Andover, MA. While in Andover, the motor was stripped down to its basic components to determine the work required to get it operation again, the availability of parts and the cost of the required work. It was noted that the cylinder walls were badly rusted when vandal removed the plugs. The windshield was replaced, but the rest of the windows with broken glass were covered with plastic. There was only one passenger seat remaining in the bus, directly behind the driver’s seat. Replacement seats were secured, but they did not match the original seat, but it was thought they could be modified make a close resemblance. A small section of the roof under the luggage was removed and replaced in order to determine the best practice to complete it restoration. Also, a piece of the header over the door had to be replaced, but had to be carefully shaped and drilled to match the section it was replacing. The information available on the bus boasted that the framing pieces were made out of white oak. When the header from the bus was taken to a lumber yard to make up a replacement, it was found that it was not white oak, but an inferior quality southern yellow pine. Massachusetts Northeastern was not quite getting what they paid for. Number 116 was acquired by Seashore Trolley Museum in 1969 and arrived here on January 18th of the same year. It had to be moved from Trombly’s Andover yard to free up storage space. The coach company had taken over the former Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway bus routes in the Lawrence area and needed the room for the additional buses. No. 116 is the second piece of Massachusetts Northeastern Street Railway equipment acquired by Seashore Trolley Museum. In 1957, Number 50 streetcar was donated by Seashore member O. R. Cummings. No. 50 served the Northeastern from 1902 until 1927.