page_title: Birney
section_title: Preservation and continued use
hierarchical_section_title: Birney / Preservation and continued use
caption_attribution_description: English: Sacramento Northern Birney Car No 62 at the Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, CA. Photo by Nick Kibre (me)
context_page_description: A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastructure and labor cost than conventional streetcars. Production of Birney cars lasted from 1915 until 1930, and more than 6,000 of the original, single-truck version were built. Several different manufacturers built Birney cars. The design was "the first mass-produced standard streetcar" in North America.
context_section_description: A number of Birney cars remain in use today in North America at trolley museums and heritage streetcar operations. Single examples of original Birney cars are in service on heritage streetcar lines in Tampa, Florida; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Fort Smith, Arkansas, as well as on the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority line in Dallas, Texas.  Two of these cars, Fort Collins car 21 and Fort Smith car 224, are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.  In Canada, the Nelson Electric Tramway (in Nelson, B.C.) has one fully restored Birney car.  Additionally, replica Birney cars built by Gomaco are in service in at least four U.S. cities (see below).
  In Australia, seven of the eight Birney cars imported there have survived in operating condition: five are at Bendigo Tramways including the two ex-Geelong cars and three from Adelaide, one G type at the Adelaide Tramway Museum, St Kilda, and one Melbourne X class housed at the Hawthorn tram depot in Melbourne. Thus, Australia has a high proportion of the world's surviving, operable Birney cars. In New Zealand, New Plymouth Birney No. 8 is preserved by Wanganui Tramways, and Invercargill Birney car No. 15, restored by the Tramway Historical Society at Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch, operates on the Christchurch tramway. Invercargill No.16 was recently rediscovered and recovered to the Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill and is being restored for static display.
caption: Sacramento Northern Birney car 62 at the Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, California
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