Standard Car

Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. 434 at Seashore Trolley Museum

During the second decade of the 20th century, due to increasing costs of labor and power, the firm of Stone & Webster, then operating many streetcar systems throughout the country, assigned Charles O. Birney, an engineer on its staff, the task of designing a standardized car which could be produced in quantity at low cost. It was to have a lighter weight than previous cars, for greater power economy and reduced track wear. The result was the Stone & Webster standard car, introduced in 1910, of which No. 434, built in 1914 for the Dallas Railway & Terminal Company of Texas by the American Car Company of St. Louis, is a rare survivor of hundreds built for use on the Stone & Webster properties.