Annual BBQ Draws Crowd for Good Food and Fun

The Baltimore Chapter NRHS held our annual BBQ on August 17th at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. This was one of our best-attended events in years. Our on-site BBQ caterer provided a full roast pig, along with hamburgers, hot dogs, barbequed beef and chicken. All of the vintage streetcars were full of riders and new drivers.

In addition to the Baltimore Chapter, attendees were from the Potomac and DC Chapters, NRHS.

Photo credit: All photos courtesy Alex Mayes

Roast Pig

Food line

Enjoying great food and company.

Chapter President Garry Pace welcomed new and older members and their families. Some family groups were 10 or 15 strong.

Attendees board the first streetcar to be operated at the BBQ. Car 554 is a Brownell Car Company single truck open car. Built in 1894, car 554 is a nine-bench open car built by the Brownell Car Company for the Baltimore Traction Company. This single truck car has flip over seats and pull-down curtains.

The motorman who operated the first trip of the BBQ, BSM member Ed Amrhein, describes the history of the car to riders at the Loop in car No. 554.

Car 554 heads back to the BSM after reversing direction at the end of the line. Passengers flipped over their own seats after receiving instructions from the motorman how to do this. Baltimore Chapter member Kunal Jha takes his turn driving on this run.

Passengers who rode the first trip of the BBQ in car 544 disembarked and ran to board PCC No. 7407 to ensure they will get a seat.

Baltimore Street Car PCC No. 7407 is the pride of the museum’s fleet.

It was the last streetcar to run in Baltimore, saved from scrap by John Engleman. Totally restored by Gov. Schaeffer and the MTA in 1990. The car is in operating condition. 7407 was built by the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company in 1944 for the Baltimore Transit Company.

It was one of the last streetcars ordered for Baltimore until the MTA bought the new light rail cars. Since this car was built during the Second World War, the stanchions are painted instead of chrome coated.

This car represented the height of streetcar development in the world when it was built and has the same general performance characteristics as the modern light rail cars. This car was rebuilt in the early 1990’s and is painted in its original color scheme of cream, Alexandria blue, and orange. The original paint scheme of Baltimore’s PCC cars was the result of a student competition circa 1936 at the Baltimore Institute of Art.

“Motorman In Training” Richard Walter prepares to depart the BSM for the loop in PCC No. 7407. Richard is a life-long railfan and is a member of the Washington D.C. Chapter of the NRHS.