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Built as a single-ended PCC (President's Conference Car) streetcar by St. Louis Car Company in 1945 for (Washington) DC Transit.
Operated by DC Transit as car 1506 until abandonment of that system in February 1962.
Bought by Fort Worth's Marvin and Obediah Leonard for their proposed rail shuttle line from their vast parking lot to their downtown department store's basement station via a 1,400-foot subway.
Rebuilt as a double-ended car and given a more "modernized" appearance in Fort Worth — stainless steel siding and blue roof trim. This modification did not completely conceal its standard PCC design heritage.
Old 1506 was renumbered as M&O #4.
The "M&O Subway" opened February 15th, 1963.
No. 4 was originally equipped with a pantograph and later with trolley poles.
Tandy Corporation bought the Leonard Brothers out in 1967.
From 1974 to 1977, subway car 4 served as a "Dillard's Metroliner" car after Dillard's bought the downtown Leonard's store.
Prior to 1977, Tandy began rebuilding the old streetcars. With this rebuilding, all external traces of Winnie's PCC heritage vanished. The rebuild gave her a boxy, but more symmetrical appearance.
No. 4 served as a Tandy Subway car until the line was abandoned on August 30, 2002.
Thanks to a grant from the Uptown Public Improvement District, MATA was able to purchase Winnie at a bargain price and thereby attain a ready-to-run double-ended PCC car for our fleet.
In February 2003, #4 was trucked to Dallas and touched down on MATA tracks at the end of Cityplace Blvd.
We installed a temporary trolley pole long enough to reach our overhead wire and drove No. 4 to the car barn under her own power.
The shop crew quickly named her "Winnie," as they thought she resembled a Winnebago. MATA officially assigned her the number 143.
We rewired the car and improved the air-conditioning. We replaced her florescent lights with PCC-style lights.
MATA built and installed new doors for street-level boarding. The side-skirting that concealed her trucks was partially cut away.
We also made some exterior cosmetic changes to make 143 look more like a streetcar again and gave Winnie a snazzy new paint job.
Despite her boxy appearance, Winnie is a quiet, smooth riding PCC streetcar.

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This page last updated 11 August 2008.