I don't know, I think that with the explosion of vintage street railways, and the usefulness of PCC cars in that type of service, it's a matter of time before any pile of rust in the rough shape of a PCC will be of strong interest to vintage lines.

Does the entropy principle apply here? Will the PCC cars available for sale, which I estimate at around 100, all disintegrate into rust flakes before the current buyer's market for them becomes a seller's market. Right now, the only cars that appear to be selling are those in good condition, such as the 5 Philadelphia cars that have been recently sold by museums to for-real or wannabee vintage trolley outfits.

The 3 Shaker PCCs are something special. First, they have a compromise tread on the wheels which make them good on railroad track, where normal streetcar wheels have problems in specialwork. Second they can be MU'd which is pretty neat. I don't know how many museums can MU their PCCs (Seashore maybe?) Third the Ex Minneapolis car has full skirting. Aside from the two Chicago cars at Union I am not aware of other PCCs with full skirting, though I could be mistaken.

I think that MidWest Threshers at Mt. Pleasant, Ia. has MU'ed their ex-Boston PCCs at busy times.

The latest update from the Cleveland newspapers...

Nothing overly new to report other than that the Chippewa Lake folks are apparently publicly interested in keeping the Ohio cars in Ohio.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index ... lecti.html

Actually, you've got it backwards. The ex-Minneapolis car at LSE does not have full skirting, however all of the Pullmans built new for SHRT did. Some were later rebuilt with the more common cut-outs for the trucks. Of the two SHRT Pullmans owned by LSE, the one in much worse shape - the one kept by the RTA until the early 2000's - still has full skirting, but then again so do ex-SHRT cars at NORM and Windber. Plus, any surviving SHRT Pullman is just a bit of sheet metal away from its original full-skirted configuration.



You're correct, those cars were run MU sometimes, but both were traded to Gomaco in 2002 for a Milan Peter Witt. I assume both have been stored at Ida Grove since. I believe Halton County has also run their PCC rail grinders MU but not positive on that.

I have been following all this with interest. It shows how strong the reginal ethic is in historic historic in America.

There are two tractions museums Ohio Railway Museum has been static for many years; not just cars but as an organization with internal friction and external neighbors who want them to go away.

The Northern Ohio Railway Museum has been around a long time without much getting done. They have built a couple of Car Barns which is a good thing, but still no wire overhead.

So as I see it there is no place in Ohio to send them home to!

I hope the Cleveland trailer goes to Seashore They have just about finished a major restoration of a Cleveland powered street car and if they get it a trailer it will be the only motor and trailer street car pain in operation anywhere.

No one has mentioned the Rio de Janiaro open cars in the collection they could well be used in any number of heritage street car lines that are poping up around the country.

Ted Miles

Timely comments about the Ohio Railway Museum, they're currently looking to move out some equipment as well....

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/whatsnew.htm

Not an apples to apples comparison with the LSE collection,, but, well draw your own conclusions I guess.

Seashore all ready has a Cleveland trailer but in very poor condition.

There goes the other shoe. ORM also liquidating a bunch of electric railway cars.

I'm telling you, the market cannot absorb this shock of equipment. A lot of stuff is either going to have to wait awhile, or get scrapped for lack of willingness to wait.

I'm sure the SFTM wouldn't mind taking a few... But we can't afford to move them.

I noticed that Norfolk & Western 578 isn't in the Ozark Mountain list. Did somebody buy it?

Charlie

I thought the Erie gas-electric that Ozark is offering was already a part of the URHS collection in NJ. I remember a big fund-raising effort a few years ago, targeted at purchasing and moving that car. What happened?

After looking at the photos of DSR 3876 and North Shore 154, both appeared to be in relatively good condition based on the photos which depict them in the "1970's". The present day photos indicate a substantial amount of deterioration over the last 30 or so years. I think it would be a shame to sell of a number of pieces of equipment which have not been well cared for only to bring in much better cars to possibly meet the same fate in 30 more years. Seashore or IRM seem to be the best locations for these cars in all fairness. Whether they have the resources immediately available to take on a substantial number of "new" cars is something they will have to answer among their leadership. A couple of the 1945 St. Louis car CA&E cars would be a great addition to the IRM collection.

Don C.

A black eye for each side in this one. I understand that ORM kept changing the terms and price with many people claiming to be in charge. For the second time URHS raised money for it, failed and is using the money for something else!

It will be interesting to see if anyone is ever able to do a deal for this doodlebug.