The No. 505 no longer looks anything like the spiffy, royal blue and cream-colored trolley Andy Maginnis remembers riding on the Green Ridge Suburban line way back in the early 1950s.
But for the trolley enthusiasts who plan to restore the Scranton Transit Co. car to its former glory, the rusted hulk that rolled into town Thursday on the back of a specially designed flatbed truck is a thing of beauty.
"I call it the skeletal remains," Mr. Maginnis joked as he snapped photographs of the 505 outside the McDade Park maintenance building on Bald Mountain Road. "It is doable, even though it looks like an impossible task."
He was among a half-dozen members of the Electric City Trolley Museum Association who waited more than two hours in the November chill for No. 505 to complete its journey from the Railways to Yesterday-operated Rockhill Trolley Museum in central Pennsylvania.
One of 10 "Electromobile" streetcars manufactured for Scranton Railway Co. by Osgood Bradley Car Co. in 1929, No. 505 operated on city streets until trolley service ended in 1954. The car bounced from one museum to another and then spent two decades exposed to the elements in a salvage yard before it finally arrived at the Rockhill museum in 1999.
When the Rockhill decided not to restore the trolley, it was offered to the Electric City group, which jumped at the opportunity to bring it back to Scranton and restore it to operational condition, said Jim Wert, chairman of the restoration effort dubbed Project 505.
He applauded and cheered when the truck bearing the trolley pulled up.
"Oh, boy," Mr. Wert said after making his initial, cursory inspection of the car, "roll up your sleeves."
Both he and Mr. Maginnis said the planned restoration, while challenging, will not be nearly as daunting as it might appear.
Project 505 has acquired - "by the grace of God," Mr. Maginnis said - complete copies of Osgood Bradley's original plans, showing all aspects of the trolley's construction. Those will aid in the fabrication of the metalwork and woodwork elements, he said.
"We have all the drawings that show us everything we need," said Mr. Maginnis, a Lansdale resident who in his younger days made trips to Scranton for the express purpose of riding the trolleys.
Just as significantly, 90 percent of the 505's parts, including the motors, wheel trucks, controls, seats, windows and interior wood detail pieces, were removed from the car in the 1970s and saved, Mr. Wert said. The parts are now in storage at Lackawanna County's trolley restoration shop near PNC Field.
No. 505 is one of just three known surviving Scranton trolleys. No. 324, which was manufactured by J.G. Brill Co. and operated in the city from 1903 until just before World War II, is undergoing restoration. The third car, a snow-sweeper trolley, is owned by the Rockhill museum.
The restoration of No. 505 is expected to cost $350,000.
Mr. Wert said Project 505 hopes to raise the money through private donations, foundation grants and corporate contributions. The immediate push is to raise $3,000, which a foundation in California has pledged to match if Project 505 can come up with the amount by Jan. 31, he said.
Donations can be sent to ECTMA, Project 505, P.O. Box 20019, Scranton, 18502. Checks should made payable to "ECTMA-Project 505."
Mr. Wert said completion of the restoration is at least three years away.
"It's going to take a lot of patience," he said. "It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of fundraising and a lot of blood, sweat and tears."
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com
About the 505
A brief history of Scranton Transit Co. No. 505:
-â1929: Manufactured by Osgood Bradley Car Co., Worcester, Mass., for Scranton Railway Co.
-â1954: Makes final run on Scranton Transit's Green Ridge Suburban line.
-â1955: Sold to private collector for museum in Sandy Pond, N.Y.
-âMid-1960s: Acquired by Magee Transportation Museum, Bloomsburg.
-â1972: Damaged during Hurricane Agnes flooding.
-â1999: Arrives at Rockhill Trolley Museum, Rockhill Furnace, after 20 years exposed to elements in salvage yard.
-â2012: Returned to Scranton for restoration by Electric City Trolley Museum Association.