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FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10573		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Gerald W. Kopiasz [ Sun Aug 15, 2004 1:35 am ]
Post subject:  FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 09:18:50 -0500
> Reply-To: IowaInterurbansandStreetRailways-owner@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [IowaInterurbansandStreetRailways] ITP and Arch Bar Trucks
>
> Good Morning:
> As you may or may not know, Iowa Trolley Park in Clear Lake, Iowa is
> being shut down. Stan Gentry owns the mortgage on the property and the
> museum has defaulted. The building and grounds are available for a
> little more than $350,000. (If I were rich, I would purchase it.)
>
> Inside the carbarn is the hulk of a PCC car, MC&CL trailer #28 (sans
> trucks), and MC&CL 102 which is a street sweeper. I would love for this
> stuff to say in Mason City / Clear Lake but I don't have anywhere to
> put it. (Don't even suggest Dave Johnson's Iowa Traction.) And the
stuff needs
> a roof.
>
> The trailer needs a good home. Haul it away and it is yours.
>
> The PCC Car is San Francisco Municipal Railway 1146, ex St. Louis
> Public Service Co. 1763, built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1946. I haven't ever
> seen it and I doubt that it runs. It needs a good home. (Or to at least be
> removed, stripped for parts by an expert, and scrapped.)
>
> The street sweeper has to be bartered for. The price is a pair of Arch
> Bar Trucks. Stan is having a steam locomotive built. It is full-size copy
> of a V&T locomotive. The tender needs a pair of 1880 vintage, passenger car,
> arch bar trucks. Stan will accept freight car trucks but they have to
> be arch bar trucks. Just so there isn't any miss-understanding, these
trucks are not for
> a model. The tender needs full size trucks gauged for U.S. Standard
> Gauge (4 feet, 8 1/2 inches).
>
> So I am hunting for a pair of arch bar trucks.
>
> I am also hunting for anyone, with a roof, that is willing to take the
> PCC car, the trailer, and the street sweeper. I would like this to be a
> package as the McGuire-Cumming's single-truck street sweeper is the gem
of the
> group. I know the street sweeper ran on December 8, 1969 as I saw it
> run. It received new brushes soon thereafter.
> Stan is a wonderful person who is willing to keep the stuff for a
> few more months. But he has some bills to pay and selling this
> property is how he needs to get these bills paid. Stan is very blunt
that he does
> not want to play 'hard ball' and just wants an empty carbarn and his
> trucks.
>
> If you contact me, please be aware that my responses will be delayed
> until August 23rd or 24th.
>
> Please forward this e-mail to anyone who you might be able to help me.
>
> Thank you,
> Thorin

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Heartland Railroad Historical Society
hrrhs@aol.com
Author:  Bob Kutella [ Sun Aug 15, 2004 5:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
This post has appeared on several boards but without any contact info. Does anyone know or have the full name and phone or address of a contact?

Another comment I heard that bears repeating, that "Stan" wants a pair of archbar trucks for a locomotive he is having built - Odd that he can build or have built an entire locomotive and tender, but cannot build a set of trucks of a fairly simple design. So he is holding some of the Trolley Park stuff for trade.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net
Author:  Jim Vaitkunas [ Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
This is in response to Bob Kutella's note.

Stan Gentry lives in Hibbing, Minnesota (up north in the Iron Range) but has recently acquired the Clear Lake, Iowa property on which the defuct Iowa Trolley Park rests.

Stan can be reached at 1-800-457-7012, if he is not there leave a message, because the secretary will not know what you are talking about with the cars.

Hope this helps.

Jim Vaitkunas
Minn. Transportation Museum
Como-Harriet Streetcar Line and
Excelsior Streetcar Line


http://www.mtmuseum.org
jvaitkunas@msn.com
Author:  Tom Cornillie [ Mon Aug 16, 2004 5:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available *PIC*
I am really suprised that the Iowa Trolley Park property and the idea of running excursions over the Iowa Traction hasn't been revived by a different group. As I understand it from posts on the IowaInterurbansandStreetRailways yahoogroup operations ceased because of poor business practices, not because of lack of demand. Having visited the site (when it was closed) in 1995 I can say that it is very close to I-35, which I think could generate a fair number of tourists with even minimal promotion.

The building itself is well designed, and as I remember it had paved walkways throughout and skylights. The website linked below has many photos of the IATR right of way.

I wish I was at the point in my life where I could relocate to this area and make an operation over this line happen.



The Iowa Traction Railroad Description and History
Image
altoonaroundhouse@umich.edu
Author:  Jim Vaitkunas [ Mon Aug 16, 2004 5:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
Interestingly, me and my son also visited Iowa trolley park in the fall of 1995. Weather was cold and rainy and we were the only two visitors. The crew took us out on a trip to Mason City in the North Shore car. Track was terrible as was the overhead. Speed was 10 mph max and perhaps slower as the car rocked from side to side. I doubt the motorman got the controller out of the first or second notch the entire trip. Frustrating considering the top speed of those cars.

I recall that the crew complained to me that the problem as they saw it was the IATR was charging them a flat fee of $50 bucks or something like that just to turn the power on. Their business couldn't justify that expense so they stopped running on IATR. Their plan was to build a loop around the building and run on that. Later we (MTM) sold them some self-propelled gasoline-engine powered open car repros that were originally made for a local theme/amusement park here in the Twin Cities. I have no idea how that went but apparently not very well.

Jim Vaitkunas
Minnesota Trans. Museum

http://www.mtmuseum.org
jvaitkunas@msn.com
Author:  Fred Ash [ Mon Aug 16, 2004 6:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: FW: Iowa Trolley Stuff Available
> I can say that it is very close to
> I-35, which I think could generate a fair
> number of tourists with even minimal
> promotion.

Being close to I-35 didn't help the now defunct Heritage Hall Museum in Owatonna, MN. It had more-than-adequate funding, a well researched business plan, a nicely displayed collection of some note (mostly airplanes) and very little business. IC 201, a 2-4-4T now at the Illinois Railway Museum, came from their collection. As a former native, I can safely say that the words Iowa and tourism should not be used in the same paragraph.

fred_ash@bankone.com
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