Quick question which I assume someone here knows: What is the current status of the two remaining Detroit Peter Witts?

I know #3876 went to Ohio Railway Museum, and #3865 went to Henry Ford Museum. I believe Henry Ford deaccessioned theirs (any idea who got it?) and last I saw (circa 1996-7) the ORM one was covered with a tarp and rusting at where the carbody meets the frame.

Thanks,

TJG


Port Huron Museum

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

> Quick question which I assume someone here
> knows: What is the current status of the two
> remaining Detroit Peter Witts?

> I know #3876 went to Ohio Railway Museum,
> and #3865 went to Henry Ford Museum. I
> believe Henry Ford deaccessioned theirs (any
> idea who got it?) ...

Sure, the 3865 was acquired by the Illinois Railway Museum and is now on display in Barn 7. The exterior was restored by the Ford Museum and is still in pretty good condition. They also disassembled the interior, so all we have is an incomplete pile of parts. However, it will eventually be restored to operating condition.

Unfortunately we don't seem to have any online pictures of it available.

"Henry Ford deaccessioned theirs (any idea who got it?)"

It's at Union, leaving a heavily-modified PCC car returned to Mt. Clemens from Mexico City as the only DSR car left in Michigan.

The Ford Museum car sat derelict behind the museum all through the fifties and sixties, rusting badly. Sometime in the 1970's it was moved inside, and a gradual restoration done to the carbody, with lots of welding, filling, and sanding. I think there was a pile of seats inside it that presumably belonged to it. Progress seemed to be very slow Maybe this work was done by volunteers. About two years ago, the car was sold, perhaps by auction, to IRM.

Now, for a real mystery, who can tell me where the 1930's pendulum passenger-car truck that also used to sit behind the Ford Museum came from, and where it went when it vanished around 1980? This was a two-axle truck that looked like a low-profile Challenger truck with Napoleon-hat axle boxes and a welded frame, painted blue. Four (or eight?) massive coil-over struts stuck up from it to support a carbody pendulum-fashion. The blue paint suggests the one-off AT&SF pendulum car of about 1939.

Aarne H. Frobom

> Sure, the 3865 was acquired by the Illinois
> Railway Museum and is now on display in Barn
> 7. The exterior was restored by the Ford
> Museum and is still in pretty good
> condition. They also disassembled the
> interior, so all we have is an incomplete
> pile of parts. However, it will eventually
> be restored to operating condition.

> Unfortunately we don't seem to have any
> online pictures of it available.

There's a black & white picture of DSR #3865 on the "Dave's Electric Railroads" website, http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/index.html. It shows the car sitting outside of the museum. There's also one in a book I own. I could try to scan it for you. I don't know if that helps you, but I hope it does.


Dave's Electric Railroads
wbaoffice@ameritech.net

The Michigan Transit Museum was contacted in regards to the Peter witt being deaccesioned by the Henry Ford. We attempted to acquire it however the Illinois Railway Museum was selected over us. Most likely because we currently have no indoor storage available for equipment larger than a speeder. It would be nice to return a DSR Peter Witt to metro Detroit in the Future.



Michigan Transit Museum
sutterd@hotmail.com