• of B.C. Electric's hundreds of streetcars and interurbans, only 10 still exist: of these, only three are operational, and Vancouver has two of those running on the Downtown Historic Railway, 1207 and 1231.
• #1231 is one of a set of 28 interurban coaches, numbered 1217 to 1244, purchased in 1913 from St. Louis Car Company (Missouri, USA) by the B.C. Electric Railway Company
• car 1231 was outshopped by S. Louis Car Co. On February 20, 1913
• car 1231 weighs 70,800 pounds (35.4 tons) and is 51 feet long
• car 1231 operated for more than 44 years - daily, trouble-free - on B.C. Electric's interurban system, the largest interurban railway in Canada
• on February 28, 1958, car 1231 was the very last passenger vehicle to roll on B.C. Electric track, from Brighouse to Marpole to Kitsilano car barn, thereby closing out 68 years of electric railway passenger service in British Columbia in August 1959, car 1231 was sold to Trolleyland Electric Railway, just south of Olympia, Washington
• in August 1975, the provincial government purchased car 1231 for $5,000; for many years it was stored in the Dominion Bridge property in Burnaby
• restored in Victoria by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Bailey and their crew, car 1231 arrived by barge through False Creek at the City works yard on October 23, 1997
• after a wait of more than 41 years, and having languished in the works yard for 21 months, 1231 once again meets B.C. Electric rails!

By Henry Ewert, author of
"The Story of the B.C. Electric Railway Company"
and "Victoria's Streetcar Era"
July, 15, 1999