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SWOYERSVILLE — Many in the community may know Harold Cox as a longtime Wilkes University professor and archivist.
What they may not know is that Cox is also a nationally known expert on the history and development of trolley cars.
With that in mind, Cox, 88, was invited to pay a visit to Wilkes-Barre’s last-known trolley car on Friday at Baut Studios, the Swoyersville business where it is being restored.
Cox, who has Alzheimer’s, didn’t say much, but nodded appreciatively as business owner Conrad Baut, a member of volunteer group Anthracite Trolleys Inc., described how the 95-year-old trolley body was recently moved from rural Franklin Township to Baut’s property, and the work that will have to be done.
Anthracite Trolleys is a nonprofit group founded to rescue and restore the car, which was built by the J.G. Brill Co. of Philadelphia in 1924. It was sold off as a summer cottage after the Wilkes-Barre trolley system closed in 1950. Car 790 was then moved to a site overlooking Perrins Marsh, where it remained until being relocated to Swoyersville several weeks ago.
Plans call for the body to be restored at Baut Studios, after which electrical and mechanical gear will be re-installed with a view toward operating the trolley once again at a museum in Scranton.
Baut estimates the entire project will take three or four years and cost $300,000, which the group aims to raise through donations.
Cox, a retired history professor and veteran, was honored by Wilkes in 2015, when the university named the building housing its creative writing program after him.
Among his written works was “Wyoming Valley Trolleys,” a 1988 history of the streetcar system which radiated out from Wilkes-Barre to serve valley communities from Nanticoke to Pittston and north into Lackawanna County.
The last remnant of that system closed in 1950, when the final car ran from Nanticoke to Public Square. Car 790 is believed to be the final surviving car.
Since being moved to Baut Studios, Baut and his sons, Peter and James, have begun some interior work, as well as sizing up what will need to be done to the car. On the outside, Bieber Dustless Blasting has done some sample work to demonstrate how layers of paint and rust can be stripped from the car’s metal and wood.
Anyone wishing to assist in the restoration effort can send donations to group treasurer Emil Augustine at 282 Pollock Drive, Pittston, PA 18640. Anyone with questions about the project can contact Baut at 570-855-3977 or [email protected].