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A last look at 93, and Peckham trucks galore
filed on: 05.04.2011 (5th Apr 2011)
Tram enthusiasts had their last opportunity to see 93 in Zürich on Saturday at an event in Wartau depot. The story of this car has already been told in an earlier news item.
The Peckham #8 truck that is currently under the car will be set aside for a future replica project, whereas the body is likely to go to Germany for a trailer project (of which I hope to reveal more later). This is not entirely unfitting as number 10 did start its life as a trailer.
The present truck was never actually used under the car. The car's earlier truck was scrapped some years ago with parts going to an Austrian museum for a restoration project (of which unfortunately I have no further information). The present truck is from a scrapped works car and was originally one of the first batch of Peckham #8 trucks built in the USA for Ce 2/2 57 - 84 in 1898. Following the conversion of these cars to trailers in the 1920s, many of the trucks were re-used for works cars, which is why several survived until recent times. The truck that is currently under 93 still has the original wheelbase of 2m (many others were extended) but the motors and axles were at some point replaced by more powerful ones with disc wheels rather than spoked.
Another truck from the same batch, with an extended wheelbase but retaining original spoked wheels (but no motors) was also on display. This truck will soon also be leaving Zürich. It is heading for Canada, where the Edmonton Radial Railway will convert it to standard gauge and pair it with the body of an ex-Charlotte NC streetcar dating to 1895.
Also on display at the depot was another Peckham truck survivor, crane car 1952, which also uses a truck from the 1898 batch.
The star of the show was the beautifully restored yellow LSB 2, a sister vehicle of 93, with the two presenting a stunning before and after contrast. This car has one of the later Peckham trucks that were built under licence by Schlieren.
It has the SWS monogram embossed rather than the Peckham company legend.
To complete the Peckham truck family, 102 was offering rides betwee Wartau and HB. This car has one of the "newer" trucks with plain castings.
While on the subject of Peckham survivors, as far as I know there are three further Peckham trucks still in Zürich. These are X2 1984 and 1987, both still seeing regular (almost daily) use as trailers in cargo service (the former has spoked wheels), and possibly one more in the VBZ works fleet (X2 1997?) but not seeing regular use. Another survivor is to be found in Scotland, in the Grampian Transport Museum. An 1900 Peckham truck from Zürich was sourced for the resoration project of a Cruden Bay Hotel Tram, completed in 2000. A further surviving 1898 truck is under a shunting vehicle on the Blonay Chamby tourist railway (Te 2/2 926). So in total, according to my information, there are 10 Zürich Peckham #8 trucks surviving in the world, of which eight are currently still in Zürich and seven are of the original 1898 batch — not bad seeing the 1898 units ended passenger service in the 1920s.
More pictures of the event (or a subseries showing only car 93)
Related links:
Edmonton Radial Railway Society
Some background on the Cruden Bay Hotel tram
Grampian Transport Museum
More on Cruden Bay (with pictures of the restoration)
This news item is from the 2011 newslog.
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