New Jersey Transit 5

No. 5 was originally built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1946 for Twin City Rapid Transit. At its peak in 192, Twin City operated 530 miles of track with over 1000 streetcars in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area. In 1945, Twin City began purchasing streamlined PCC streetcars. 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. PCC cars built after World War II used the all-electric variation having electric brakes instead of the earlier air-operated brakes. The Twin City Rapid Transit’s PCC cars were several inches wider than the standard in other cities. Under new management starting in 1949, Twin City began converting to buses and selling the new PCC cars. In 1953, Public Service Coordinated Transit (a unit of the Public Service Electric & Gas Company) purchased 30 of the Twin City PCC cars, including No. 324, for operation on the Newark City Subway. This 5 mile-long line, which opened in 1935, operated in a subway on the abandoned Morris Canal bed in downtown Newark and on the surface on the city’s north side. Public Service renumbered No. 324 to No. 5. The PCC cars began operating on the Newark City Subway on January 8, 1954. Public Service Coordinated Transit was renamed Transport of New Jersey in 1971 but remained owned by PSE&G. New Jersey Transit, a state agency, took over the transit operations of Public Service in 1980. A change in paint scheme accompanied each corporate name change. The PCC cars ran for 48 years on the Newark City Subway until being replaced by LRV vehicles in 2001. When New Jersey Transit modernized its City Subway for LRV operation, it replaced trolley poles with pantographs on the PCC cars. Newark’s PCC cars were well maintained and were well regarded by riders and the general public. After being stored for several years, Seashore acquired No. 5 in 2011. No. 5 joined Public Service Coordinated Transit bus K514 which Seashore acquired in 1999. The museum has done extensive restoration work on No. 5 and has repainted the car in its final NJ Transit colors. Several other Newark PCC cars are preserved at other museums, and a group of Newark PCC cars is operating in San Francisco.