Last of a Dying Breed Birney Safety Cars Philadelphia Trolley The Most Economical Single-Operator Trolley The J.G. Brill Company was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia. By the 1910s, they were the dominant trolley maker in the east. The Birney Safety Cars shown here were made in the 1920s. Birney is the designation for a trolley that could be operated by one person, serving as both the conductor and motorman. The Safety Car designation refers to the “kill” button that stopped the trolley if the driver became incapacitated. J.G. Brill sold over 6,000 Birneys before they went out of business in the 1940s. Used in Queens and Philadelphia Steinway Lines were owned by piano-maker William Steinway as a way to get workers to his Queens plant. He leased 25 J.G. Brill Birneys in 1930. They were used by Steinway until he sold the line in 1939. They were then leased to other Queens trolley lines and were New York Cities last streetcars when they were finally retired in 1957. The Philadelphia Transportation System bought 35 Birneys in the 1920s and 1930s, using them on short feeder routes in Chester County and Northeast Philadelphia. By the late 1940s, all these lines were converted to buses. These Limited Edition Corgi Birney Streetcars, in true O-Gauge, are perfect precision die-cast replicas of the originals. Hand-painted with destinations, lead wires and window bars, they are exact reproductions of those that rolled through Americas cities a half-century ago. Model Features • Precision DieCast Replica • 9.5 Inches Long • 1:48 Scale Model