Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 5154

Boston Elevated Railway Company (BERy) No. 5154 began life as a Type 3 Semi-Convertible “Tunnel Car”. In December of 1904, in anticipation of operating through the East Boston Tunnel then under construction, Boston Elevated Railway designed and built a pilot car – No. 5000 – at its Bartlett Street shops. The car was completed in June, 1905, and after a short test period, was approved. BERy had three separate serious of cars built based on the 5000’s design: Type 1 J.G. Brill 5001 – 5040 1905 Type 2 J. G. Brill 5041 – 5090 1906 Type 3 St. Louis Car Company 5091 – 5190 1907 - 1908 All three groups were similar, save that Type 3 which was built by St. Louis and had 4 motors, while Type 1 and 2 had two electric motors. Type 2 had side panels sheathed in steel to give passengers the impression that the cars were less likely to be subject to fires, a major fear of riders in 1904. Types 1 and 3 had exposed wood side sheathing. Number 5154 was accepted by BERy on January 25th, 1908. It was initially assigned to the Sewall Street Carhouse in Brookline. No. 5154 was converted to the prepayment system in 1914. This facilitated the conversion to one man operation around 1922, which represented a significant cost savings by eliminating the conductor. In September of 1916, it was reassigned to the Salem Street Carhouse in Medford. Then in August 1919, it started working the routes between the Sullivan Square El Station and Salem Street or West Medford via Winter Hall and Medford Square. BERy began retiring its Type 3s from revenue service in 1925. No. 5154 got a reprieve and was moved to the Everett Shops for conversion to a snowplow. The retired Type 3s were an excellent platform for this type of work. In 1927, BERy began converting the Type 3s into snowplows. They were especially suitable because of their heavy weight, with 4 powerful electric motors providing enough muscle to move the heavy wet snow common to the Boston area. Plows were installed on the front and back, along with wing blades to clear the snow banks away from the right-of-way. A subway type resistor was installed to permit the plow to operate at slower speeds for longer periods when clearing the snow. On December 14th, 1927 the conversion was complete, and the repurposed No. 5154 returned to the Salem Street Carhouse. From there it was moved to the Arborway, then over to the Reservoir Carhouse and finally ended at Mattapan where finished its working career on the Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed line. In 1958, it was stored outside Mattapan before it was officially retired in 1974. Seashore Trolley Museum took ownership of No. 5154 in 1974. It was trucked from Mattapan Yard in May of 1974. Work began on the car the same year and continued until 1986. During that time, broken windows were glazed. Volunteers finished applying new canvas to the roof in 1980. Surprisingly the roof framing was in good shape with little deterioration, so none of the framing had to be replaced. The car was jacked off its trucks so that repairs to the frame could be made with the car properly aligned. Framework was completed in 1985, and No. 5154 was let down back on its trucks. Considerable work was done to the car’s metal plates and structural beams. Some work was done on the plow brackets, but very little else was done to make the car operable. At the end of 1986, work was suspended.