Abandoned Trolleys

There was an abandoned PCC shell in the woods of Silver Spring/Colesville/Wheaton Maryland (ask someone what town it is, you'll get a million different answers). It was visible from the ROW of the National Capital Trolley Museum. No pictures and I can't find any but with the highway construction kicking the trolley museum out of their land, I suspect it is somewhere under the North/west bound lanes with the rest of their old facility. 

This story was the subject of a rather long thread on the PCC streetcar discussion group - Yahoo Groups back in August.  The original poster had posted only still photos, not a video, and also said that the location was identified in his source document as a “remote forest in North Carolina”.  However, knowledgeable members of that Yahoo group concluded that the photos were indeed taken in Windber, PA, at Ed Mitchell’s Vintage Electric Streetcar Company (near Johnstown), and not in a forest in North Carolina.

HTH,

Bill T

Don't forget, there's a huge difference between 'abandoned' and 'stored and we'll get to that someday.' Most stuff people assume is the former, is usually the latter.

That's the problem with these 'urban explorer' types, they think stuff that's simply not being used at that moment is fair game for anyone to do whatever they want with.

It’s not RR-related but when I was active duty Army (1999 if I recall correctly), we were doing a tactical exercise on a seldom-used portion of the post we were at. Myself, the other officers and the NCOs had done a ‘leader recon’ of the site twice and found some old WW2-era artillery observation bunkers and decided to make them part of the scenario. We didn’t have anyone in them but the idea was to let the soldiers stumble onto them without knowing they were there to see how they’d react. When it happened, I got that fateful radio call, “We’ve found a group of bunkers with two-zero individuals inside. We’ve secured them, standing by for further, over.” I’ll never forget that moment, myself and two NCOs standing over the hood of a Humvee with classic, “WTF?” looks. We ran up and sure enough, there was a large group of these “urban explorers” who had also recently found out about these bunkers. They were all sitting on the ground with their hands behind their backs in a circle, surrounded by my people with weapons pointing at the bewildered group. Somehow they got through the gates of a secured Army installation. My soldiers thought they were part of the scenario and did an admirable job handling them by the book. I was proud of how they tactically handled them, but was terrified at what would happen later once we freed them. They had all been flex-cuffed and were under armed guard (only blanks, but I doubt any of them recognized blank adapters, especially at a moment like that). This group had apparently been doing all kinds of tours like this and NEVER with permission. I bet they all thought twice after we got hold of them. And no, I didn’t have to ‘stand tall before the man’ afterward like I was sure I would at the time. The group never lodged any formal complaints but I didn't sleep very well for a couple of weeks as I kept expecting to get a call that some commander way above my pay grade wanted to talk at me the following morning...

Having spent time on a military base that did a lot of frantic security upgrades immediately after 9/11, I would strongly suspect the trespassers were too terrified

that they would be doing hard time at Leavenworth, to even think themselves anything

but lucky, to get off the property.

The paint on the I beam in the building looks fresh. The cars indoors look cleaned, or "maintained" at least. Id like to think a real enthusiast stood there recently. But it was more likely a shady scrap operation and abandoned when the copper ran out. Cant take always take someone's word on a location. Many explorers don't want others crawling around "their find", and/or don't want the owners, locals, or law officers attentions.

I think universal in the states, no matter who owns it, if its not clearly marked on all sides edges, its enterable without trespass, but I don't push my luck much anyway. I've come out of chains of public and private woods onto newly privatized land, and received some hassle. Sheriff just shrugged, only the road was marked. 

Based on the information provided earlier in the thread I used my favorite tool, Bing maps birds eye view to find this location.  There sure was lots of stuff there at the time the birds eye photo was taken.  If you are interested find Windber, Pa on the map, then find the "Y" railroad tracks.  The location is along 19th street.  Switch to birds eye when you find it and follow the tail of the "Y" into the woods.