Kansas City Birney Made Available

One of the varied trove of extant Birney bodies has gone up for sale, according to this post on the Ahead of the Torch Facebook group. The car, shown above, is Kansas City Public Service 1545, and it has an unusual and slightly sordid history. It's a standard single-truck Birney built by American in 1919, notable in part because it remained in service long after most Birneys had gone to scrap. Car 1545 was the last Birney to run for KCPS, on May 1, 1949, and it was one of two KCPS Birneys preserved (sister car 1533 is at the National Museum of Transportation and is in the midst of a major restoration project). This car was purchased in 1950 by Jay Maeder, who at the time was the president of Speedrail, operator of the rump of the once-great Milwaukee Electric interurban system. Car 1545 was moved to Milwaukee and stored with out-of-service equipment from the Wisconsin lines. After the disastrous Speedrail wreck of September 1950, which happened in large part due to decisions made by…