Birney
This article describes the mass transit vehicle. For other usages, see Birney (disambiguation).A
Birney or
Birney Safety Car is a small light
streetcar intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower
infrastructure and
labor cost than conventional streetcars.
The Birney car was the
1916 invention of
Charles O. Birney, an
engineer with the firm of
Stone & Webster, an operator of a number of
trolley systems in the
United States of America in the early part of the
20th century.
The vehicle was a return to single-truck (single-
bogie) streetcars. They were small and light, about a third the weight of conventional cars, of rugged standardized construction and cheaply built. Twin motors gave them nimble acceleration.
|
Birney safety car, typical interoir |
They were designed to operate with only a
motorman, saving the cost of the
conductor. The advent of
World War I made single-person operation additionally attractive as it addressed the wartime labor shortage. When labor was available, the Birneys could be operated at more frequent intervals, prompting the
slogan "A Car in Sight at all Times." This latter attraction was one of the
street railway industry's first attempts to deal directly with
automobile competition.
Thousands of the cars were purchased from their inception to a few years after the end of the war. They began to fall from favor because of the features that made them attractive initially. Their light weight could be a problem in snow that a heavier car could easily plough through, and ride was compromised or even derailment possible on poor track or from the efforts of determined youth. The limited passenger capacity rendered them unsuitable for busy routes and
rush hour service, and the public began to deride them as flimsy.
The streetcar companies also found that the safety features of the Birney, such as the use of interlocked doors to prevent the car from starting if a door was open or a passenger was stuck, could be incorporated in larger cars and that the public was not as disturbed by the absence of the conductor as the companies had feared.
Their initial rise and fall notwithstanding, the Birney car was useful and durable, and many were shipped to other countries, especially those with small-town lines, where they served for additional decades.
A number of Birney cars remain in use today in
North America at trolley museum and
heritage streetcar operations.
In Australia, seven Birney cars have survived in operating condition: five are at Bendigo Tramways, one at the Australian Electric Transport Museum, and one at the Hawthorn Tram Depot in Melbourne. Thus Australia has a high proportion of the world's surviving Birney cars.
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Peter Witt streetcar*
PCC streetcar
