I passed through Worthington, Ohio earlier today while traveling on business and had a few minutes, so I stopped at ORM. I was surprised, to say the least, to find that their barn is gone! It appears to have been simply scrapped or taken down. Does anyone know when or why this was done? The cars in their yard have been shuffled around, and most are tarped - is there any chance that ORM plans to replace the structure to protect the equipment?

Frank Hicks

The below photo, taken by me in January 2003, shows Michigan line car #7763 in ORM's barn.

Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars

F-Hicks@wiu.edu

I was there late last summer and it was gone then. If you look at the old photos in the replica staion, you can see photos of the building in the 1950s or so, so it was pretty old. The last time I saw it (2002 I think) I seem to recall some of the wood trusses appeared to had broken and it was being propped up from the tops of the cars under it. I think it was time for it to come down gracefully.

On speaking with one of the members there, they do plan/hope (I'm not sure which) to build a new restoration shop building complete with machine toos they already have and room for numerous trolleys. (Maybe eight or so by the sound of it.) Of course this was just in chatting and I don't know how solid the plans are. They sounded resonably confident it would happen.

They also plan to extend the trolley line further south to a city park and build a platform there. The plan is apparently to offer two way service paying at either end. Visitors could ride the trolley to the museum and return to the park or vice versa. The said they already had the rail, but I didn't see it anywhere (it's not a real big place.) I had heard talk of that the year before too. Again I don't know if it is talk or a real plan.

The equipment has beent tarped for several years. That is one of the several improvements I have seen at the ORM in the past decade. This past visit is the first time in about five visits over the past fifteen years that I saw volunteers working on equipment.

ORM seems to be on the comeback trail, but has a long way to go. I wish them good luck.



ebtrr@spikesys.com