Baltimore Transit Co. 5748

In the early 1920s, Baltimore’s United Railways and Electric operated nearly 2000 cars over more than 400 miles of track, one of the largest street railway systems in the U.S. Baltimore’s track gauge, 5 ft. 4 ½ in., was the widest in the industry. The company reorganized as Baltimore Transit Co. in 1935. The BTC converted most of its lines to buses between 1948 and 1956. Its last streetcar ran in 1963. No. 5748, built in 1917, was one of 885 Brill semi-convertible cars acquired by United Railways & Electric between 1905 and 1919. These were the dominant car class in Baltimore for most of the streetcar era. Brill’s semi-convertible design featured two-sash windows which could slide on runners into the roof during the summer. Baltimore’s last 140 semi-convertibles had longer bodies with 13 windows on each side instead of 11 windows on the earlier cars. An estimated 60% of all patrons who ever rode a Baltimore streetcar up to their 1963 abandonment did so on a Brill semi-convertible. One of the later groups of Baltimore’s semi-convertibles was the 80 cars that UR&E ordered from Brill in 1917 and place in service the following year. UR&E numbered these Nos. 1501-1570 and 1951-1960 because they were to run on routes 15 and 19. In 1922, UR&E renumbered these to Nos. 5745-5824. No. 1504 became No. 5748. In 1937, Baltimore Transit Co. converted No. 5748 to one-man operation. When BTC converted cars to one-man operation, the company repainted the cars from red to a bright yellow paint scheme. No. 5748 was modified with steel siding in its later years. BTC retired most of its Brill semi-convertibles by 1950. No. 5748 and a few others continued to run on the suburban Ellicott City route until service on this line ended in 1955. The Maryland Historical Society and local railfans saved No. 5748 from scrapping. The Baltimore group was unable to find a site for No. 5748 in Baltimore and presented it, without trucks, to Seashore in 1957. Seashore obtained a set of standard gauge 27G trucks from Montreal to use on No. 5748. No. 5748 joins United Railways & Electric No. 6144, a Peter Witt car which Seashore had acquired in 1955. These are two of only three Baltimore streetcars preserved outside of Baltimore. The third is the body of a 1920 Birney located at Union College in Lincoln, NE. Seashore partially restored No. 5748 in the 1970s.