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.

This was exactly my inital thought. All the likely players are already scrambling for cash, space, resources, etc to make any/all of the LSE collection happen, and then you have these added to the mix.

Having said that, two thoughts come to mind.

1) How might this change a given museum's positioning for the LSE auction ?
Just throwing a name out there as examples, suppose for example that East Troy was interested in one of the LSE CA&E cars. While in considerably rough shape, given their operation/collection, the ORM North Shore car makes more sense, and while you're going to have to spend more on the backend to make it serviceable, some of that money is going to have been saved by not being in a bidding war for any of the LSE collection.

2) While I beleive that ORM has tried over the years to dispose of much of this equipment, could this renewed effort be tied to finding funding and storage space for an attempt at getting some of the LSE cars to their museum ?

What is the story behind the steeplecab, C&S 2?

--
Will

Talk about sad stories: CTA 4449 at Ohio Railway Museum is certainly one of them. When I visited ORM in 1977, it was (as I recall) running in passenger service. Since this was back when the "other" 4449 had just been brought back to life, I had a bit of fun telling people how I got photos of 4449 in Ohio, then showing the rapid transit car. Alas, when I stopped in at ORM two years ago, I knew that its running days were over, and the present Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars entry says "to be scrapped". At least Illinois Ry. Museum has a working set of 4000's; I remember riding and taking movies of them on the Evanston Express in 1971 and thinking how they reminded me of the PE cars of my childhood.

I noticed ORM's 4441 and 4449 are virtually mates to MTM's 4442 and 4450. One of which is out-of-service now, too.

It seemed like at one time, the CTA 4000's were as overpreserved as GG1s. Now, I wonder if any will be with us in another 10 years.

I wouldn't worry about 4000's becoming extinct. IRM has three 4000's which have been restored and are operated regularly, with a fourth (a center-door "Baldy") currently under restoration and a fifth unrestored but stored under cover. East Troy has a pair that are operational and stored indoors, and Fox River has one stored outside that runs and a second stored inside that doesn't. Then, of course, there are the two still owned by CTA and stored in Skokie Shop.

I believe the Middletown & Hummelstown RR in central Pennsylvania also has a couple 4400's, though they are not operational.

M & H did get the 2 CTA 4000 cars that had been sold to Buckingham Valley Trolley Association.

I was told today of another wrinkle in the whole mess:

Supposedly SIX BOXCAR LOADS of random spare parts, tools, and whatnot are being auctioned Friday.

If you're playing that game of bidding on random parts offered up in whatever lots are being offered, you darned well better know what the heck you're getting into.

Anyone a bit curious why the Ohio Railway Museum would want to get rid of a Columbus Railway Power & Light steeplecab? Wouldn't that be a core piece for their collection? But that begs the question, what exactly IS the ORM's mission?

I think it's just the viewing tomorrow and Friday. I have not heard of anything being auctioned until the end of September.

I suspect many of the preserved 4000's were preserved because their motors and controls were similar enough to 1920's interurbans to provide parts for car bodies in various collection, and so, were preserved for the motors, trucks and controls, not for the complete car, and were scrapped in the name of preservation... GG1's do not serve well as part donors... so survive as hulks.

Has anyone got any updates/ reports from the field from the preview? Pictures?

Ted.

I just received a phone call. The parts are a duke's mixture in baskets/boxes. You might say a pig in a poke as they are not sorted as I understand it. Too bad, selection and ability to see the contents would bring more money on worthy boxes.

Furthermore, do you think the "players" are going to "show their cards" before/during an auction process? If there are indeed any jewels in the rough (or manure) out there, nobody's going to discuss it until they're safely off the property.

This and the Toledo are probably the best in the warehouse. I didn't get under the tower. The baskets all have some nice things and some not so nice things in them. I guess that is a "dukes blend"?