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Matt Cosgro photo, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
A particularly beautiful foreign exhibit is a trim four wheel strassenbahnwagen from Hamburg, Germany, which was obtained through the efforts of a German exchange student who visited Seashore, Karl Robert Leimbach. Built in 1921, No. 2710, like Rome's No. 279 , was designed to haul one or two unmotorized trailers. It was extensively but tastefully modernized in Bremen in 1957 to meet new safety requirements for streetcars in Germany. Originally a double end car, the front and rear ends were totally changed for one way operation so it now has door openings on the right side only. Other features installed at rebuilding include headlights, two red lights at the rear, a stop light, old Volkswagen type swinging arm directional signals, an electric windshield wiper, destination and number signs and a trolley rope catcher. The car runs like a fine watch, has a speedometer (an unusual feature on a streetcar) and it equipped with typically European control system with reverse points for regenerative braking, the last two of which also actuate a magnetic track brake.
The single truck car was donated to the Museum by the Hamburger Hochbahn A.G., with moving charges in Germany being borne by Atlantikbrucke, the German Federal Railways trucking service and Seashore member Leimbach. It was shipped to this country on the S.S. Pioneer Glen in June 1965. Great assistance to the project was rendered by Dr. Edgar von Schmidt-Pauli, German Consul General in Boston and by his assistant Peter Schoenwaldt, Vice Consul. With cooperation of the Federation of German Agricultural Exporters and two Barbershop Quartet groups, the car was displayed at Greater Boston supermarkets and in two parades before journeying to its new home in Maine.
History from Historic Cars: The National Collection at the Seashore Trolley Museum by Ben Minnich
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