Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 3127

The PCC car takes its name from the Electric Railway Presidents Conference Committee established in the early 1930s to design a modern, streamlined streetcar. It was a successful design with approximately 5000 PCC cars being built between 1936 and 1952 for systems in the U.S. and Canada. Some PCC cars built after World War II used the all-electric variation having electric brakes instead of the earlier air-operated brakes. Although an early participant in the PCC development program, Boston took a long time to place a large order. This was due to the use of left hand loading at subway stations and other locations. In 1937, the Boston Elevated purchased one PCC from St. Louis Car, but it lacked a left hand door which limited its use. To modify the PCC design for left hand loading, the ERPCC required a full sized mockup of any changes to the basic design. Since adding the left hand door required moving the right center door and the motor generator set, the cash strapped Boston Elevated took time to complete the work. Boston placed its first large order for 20 PCCs in 1940 with delivery in 1941. In 1944 and 1945, Boston Elevated acquired wartime austerity model PCCs. Sources differ between 1944 and 1945 for No. 3127’s delivery date. No. 3127 is part of a class of wartime PCCs with General Electric equipment which were normally based at the Watertown Carhouse. These cars replaced the “Tremonts” at Watertown late in 1945. No. 3127 is similar to No. 3083, which is another wartime PCC also at Seashore. No. 3083, however, has a modified raised roof and has Westinghouse motors. The PCC cars continued under Metropolitan Transit Authority ownership beginning in 1947 and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ownership beginning in 1964. After 1951, the MTA had a large fleet of 321 PCCs, and the MTA added 25 additional second-hand PCCs in 1958. Pullman-Standard built all of Boston’s PCCs except for the first car in 1937. The Watertown-based cars remained there until 1969, when the last car line running from Watertown was converted to bus. The MBTA then reassigned the cars to the Arborway, Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue lines. When the MBTA adopted its color-coding scheme for its various transit lines in 1967, the MBTA repainted most of its PCC cars from their original orange and white to a green and white paint scheme. In 1976, the MBTA began replacing the PCC cars with LRV cars such as No. 3424 which is now at Seashore. No. 3127 was retired in 1982 after a replacement accelerating and braking relay was miswired. Even after the LRVs became museum pieces, eleven PCC cars continue to run in regular service on the MBTA’s Ashmont – Mattapan line. After its retirement, No. 3127 came to Seashore in 1982. After much troubleshooting, Seashore corrected the miswired relay situation, and 3127 was an operating car for many years. Volunteers have performed other maintenance and restoration work on No. 3127. A failed pilot motor caused a secondary failure in the starting resistance, which has held the car out of service for some time. Seashore has acquired representatives of each type of Boston PCC: Pre-war style (No. 3019), wartime with a flat roof (No. 3127), wartime with raised roof (No. 3083), Post-war with standee windows (No. 3221), Post-war with picture windows (Nos. 3274 and 3292), and double-ended (No. 3340).