Detroit Peter Witt 3876 is for sale according to this website. This is the Peter Witt that is at the Ohio Railway Museum. I know that the Michigan Transit Museum has tried to get it. Is the MTM still interested?

http://www.ozarkmou%20ntainrailcar.%20com/detroit_%20street_railway_%203876.htm

I can't speak for MTM, but I think they have their own set of issues right now as well. Does anyone from MTM frequent this site?

Chris.

Seeing as how MTM has no inside storage or restoration facilities, I don't see how moving this streetcar there would be any improvement on its present situation.

Clicking through the thumbnails is quite an enlightenment of how years of benign neglect can affect equipment. The seats that are torn apart and the padding strewn about are indicative of wildlife building nests in them. Could be raccoons or squirrels or even rats. I've seen this before in an interurban body that was left outside unprotected for years.

Sorry about that link. Try pasting this in the address bar.

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/det ... y_3876.htm

A Michigan car ought to go to Michigan, I agree. There are, what, maybe six? total? Michigan traction cars surviving? The systems disappeared from Michigan very early and we can't afford to lose even one more.

However when you inventory the various Michigan railway preservation outlets who might be poised to take such cars ... the picture is grim. Mind you, I am the fellow who holds the belief that the best operating railway museums have historially achieved permanence when they focused on buying a railroad, buying land and building carbarns, so that is a reasonable path to success.

Middle of the state, 1225 is obviously focused on 1225, and that's how things should be :)

In the "thumb", Bluewater is all about excursions, their fleet is mainline coaches.

Northwest of Detroit in Flint, Huckleberry is also specialized in narrow gauge steam.

West of Detroit, the Henry Ford Museum is a world class museum but too generalized and already has some Michigan traction.

Just northeast of Detroit: Michigan Transit Museum can no longer operate inside the airbase, which truncates their 5 mile route to 1.5 miles. Fortunately, they own the track. Unfortunately, it's in Vandalville. Fortunately, the airbase still lets them store the equipment on base, but I get the impression that it's kind of a fragile grandfathered sort of relationship, not to be burdened further. I am concerned about their long-term future, and if you read the newsletter, so are they. I would love to see MTM grab some property in a more practical location but I don't see talk going in that direction. They're pretty entrenched in Mt. Clemens with the track and the depot.

In the southeast corner of the state west of Ann Arbor: Southern Michigan Railroad Society is an enigma. They own a sweet 13 mile line with heavy rail and are saving money for a land purchase. But they are really struggling, can't even field a reliable schedule. What money they might raise for acquisition must go to operating equipment. I don't see in *this* economy them marshalling a funds drive for both their needed equipment and also a DSR car.

On the west side of the state near Grand Rapids: the Coopersville and Marne Railway, I don't know much about (if I did, they'd have a Wikipedia page.) It appears to be a nonprofit and does field an interesting array of equipment. I'm guessing they own their railroad but Google Earth says everything is stored outside west of town on the main or an industrial spur.

In the center of the state's southern edge: Little River Railroad (Indiana/Michigan) is a neat operation which hey, you gotta respect, has a fully operational steam engine and impressive coach fleet. That seems to be their focus, and outside of that they don't seem to have a strong tendency to collect. They also don't have their own railroad or land, they have always been a tenant of one shortline or another.

I'm focusing exclusively on non-profit organizations which *operate*, I'm leaving out for-profits. I'm also overlooking static museums, and such a museum might be a good home for this car. I apologize if I overlooked yours.

There is simply no operating museum in Michigan comparable to IRM, OET, etc. Apply my "Buy railroad, buy land, build barns" yardstick and it seems that the railroad owners, Coopersville and the Southern Michigan, are farthest along. I'm blind guessing on Coopersville.

As you can see, the obvious place for a Michigan traction car to go is ... not obvious. It's so non-obvious that "Union, Illinois" is not a wrong answer.

Thanks, but we've already got one. :-)



Ours actually came from the Ford Museum, and while the interior and electrical/mechanical system is not complete the car was completely restored structurally and externally while at Ford.

If I recall, the Detroit car at ORM is single ended. From memory, even in the heyday, it was rare to see it out since it was difficult for them to operate with no turn around. I only recall riding in it once or twice. 154, the North Shore car, on the other hand, that car rocked on the south end of the line, in real time and in speed and was a main stay for several years.

Bob

I was told today by Baltimore Streetcar Museum folks, for what little it's worth, that the IRM car and this ORM car are THE only two Detroit streetcars of any kind to survive.

That is incorrect. The two Peter Witts are the only two Detroit Peter Witts to survive. 2 of the PCCs survive, one at the Michigan Transporation Museum, and another one in Mexico City. One of the Birneys survives, at a museum in Canada. It was sold to the Montreal system in the 1920s.