Wile perusing eBay a few weeks ago, I found this photo and promptly purchased it. It is of St. Louis Water Division #10. The photo is good quality, a 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 contact print. The writing on the back indicates it was taken in 1936.

The reason that the photo appealed to me is that the 10 survives and operates at the Museum of Transportation. I've been doing some touch up painting, brake work and other miscellaneous work on the car the past several months, one of those non-meaningful projects that I've never worked on.

Yesterday, after doing some painting, a friend came out and took a photo of the 10 today, with me posing in the same spot as the man in the earlier photo. It's a neat comparison I thought I'd share.

Great pair of shots!

Hey, Dave, does your wife accuse you of not lying about your age? Mine does. She says I'm not really 58 years old. She says I'm really 158 years old! She says only someone that old would know about all that old train stuff!

In your case, you almost have the proof in those photos for your wife to say that!

Hey Dave, you have to get the car all gussied up. She'll be 100 next year!

Marty,

The car was already in pretty good shape. The original restoration is about 10 years old though, so it was time to do some remedial work to address some of the wear and tear. After we rebuilt the motorman's valves, I installed original style Westinghouse Brass air gauges that were calibrated by a friend.

I rebuilt both catchers and they work very well now. I also repainted all of the "black" at each end of the car, the controller frame, handles, brake piping and handrails. I've repainted the steps, and will finish that up in the next couple of weeks, along with the two end platforms. We're also going to do some touch up on the exterior of the car.

The car is somewhat unique. It has a high floor, as the Water Division wanted to use it to switch freight cars at the water plant between passenger runs. It probably only moved one car at a time, as it has streetcar-style straight air brakes. The high floor means very steep steps. Also, the car has doors on one side only.

The car is popular when it runs. When Union Pacific hosted Family Day a few weeks ago, we had over 600 riders on the car.

What is the horsepower rating of the motors? The reason I ask is that another relic that was used to switch cars but only has straight air brakes is GE locomotive H&N 1, which also has a K-35 controller and four GE 263 motors rated at 65 hp each. Also--the trucks under 10 looked familiar; they're from the same series that was used under British Columbia Electric interurbans, such as 1225, which is now running in Cloverdale BC. Good to see these units running even though they've passed the century mark.

St Louis 23 trucks, both cars.

How does the high floor relate to switching duty? Keeping the underframe in line with standard coupler height?

Steve

Can you suggest how they would provide an adequate drawbar otherwise?