Latest news on 302

Evening everyone, my apologies for the lack of updates lately. The Coast Guard & family commitments has had me pretty busy lately. Well 302 has been serviced and the clean out of the interior has been completed. The heaters were inspected and cleaned out as necessary. The car even manged to take a trip or two down the mainline. Thanks to George Boucher & Jeff Hakner at the museum for taking & sending me the photo shown below. She sure looks good out in the sun & snow doesn't she!!!





I have been searching through old Electric Railway Journals as well as the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association's magazine "Shoreliner". I did find some information in the "Trolley Stop" series of articles in the Shoreliner volume 19, issue 3 stating that the trolley RPO routes in New Bedford were as follows:

Providence, Rhode Island and Fall River, Massachusetts from 1902-1924

Providence, Rhode Island and New Bedford, Massachusetts from 1929 -1930

Providence, Rhode Island and Fall River, Massachusetts from 1930-1932


Unfortunately that was about all I could discover on the RPO routes. In a later issue of the Shoreliner I was able to discover why 302 was numbered in the 300 series, as was all of Union Street Railway's freight equipment. In Volume 20 Issue number 3 the Trolley Stop article written by the late Charles Brown, describes the formation of the "Electric Express Company". The company was formed by the New Haven Railroad as a result of the ban placed on the railroad by the state of Massachusetts preventing direct ownership of any electric railways in the state. The function of the Electric Express Co. was similar to that of the Railway Express Agency for the steam roads. All freight motors used were very similar in appearance, but not identical. Most of the traction companies were owned by the New England Investment & Security Company, and some were independent. It should be noted that the New England Investment & Security Company was in turn owned by the New Haven Railroad. In order to identify ownership of the freight motors, all companies involved utilized a specific number series as shown below:



Bay State Street Electric Railway - car numbers 1 thru 44

Milford, Attleboro & Woonsocket - 0100 series

Worcester Consolidated Railway - 0200 series

Union Street Railway - 300 series

Springfield Street Railway - 0400 series

Boston & Worcester Street Railway - 500 series

Berkshire Street Railway - 0600 series



All traction lines with the exception of the Bay State, Union St Railway and the Boston & Worcester were owned by the New England Investment & Security Company. As 302 was originally built as a freight trailer as seen in the photo posted earlier, now we know how 302 got its number.



If any of the readers has any contradictory information I'd be glad to post it on here as my goal is to get the information correct. Feel free to drop me an Email at fullparallel@cox.net

Till next time......