Minature trains that formerly ran at the Detroit Zoo, rusting away in a storage area of the Detroit Historical Museum. These were gasoline-powered/steam outline locomotives, of fairly old construction.

http://www.glancytrains.com/php-cgi/gallery/album37
ryarger@rypn.org

If I am wrong, someone please correct me: aren't these trains stored at the Ft. Wayne site? (That's a fort in the south side of Detroit, not the city in Indiana.)

Chris J.

> Minature trains that formerly ran at the
> Detroit Zoo, rusting away in a storage area
> of the Detroit Historical Museum. These were
> gasoline-powered/steam outline locomotives,
> of fairly old construction.


chrisjacks@chrisjacksnospam.com

Too bad - it looks like it would have been fun. Anyone know why it was removed from the zoo? Also, if I'm not mistaken that's a '69 Camero parked beside the loco. Wonder why that's in a zoo storage lot. Perhaps a possible engine swap for the locomotive's engine? ;^)

Is this the equipment that was involved in the derailment they had in the early 80's? I know they still run trains on their miniature railroad.

sutterd@hotmail.com

I haven't been back to the Detroit Zoo (actually in Royal Oak) since the middle sixties, but if they're still running trains they're hauled by 3 locomotives driven, I believe, by truck engines through automatic transmissions, and having the outline of Milwaukee Road streamlined Hudsons. I have a vague memory that they were built by Chrysler Corporation in the fifties. They are very showy pieces and each was named for a Detroit industrial magnate of the fifties, presumably big donors. The trains were a central feature of the "zoological park," which is large enough that a family with kids wouldn't want to walk round trip, but would typically take the train between the gate and the other side of the park, so I presume they're still running.

On one trip around 1962 I remember a nonstreamlined engine hidden in a fake "tunnel" and always wondered about it. I presume this was an earlier generation of motive power, and that it's the one in these photos.

- Aarne Frobom

I thought you folks might want to know there is a color picture of one of those streamliners in a car magazine...the August issue of Collectible Automobile, which should still be on the newsstand. It is in a small picture on page 20, in the background, behind a 1961 Plymouth Valiant. The article itself is on the Valiants.

Funny how I had just finished reading the article and wondered about the train in the picture. The zoological park name on the tender was partially blocked so I didn't know where it was. Thanks for giving me some clues. BTW: the name of the pictured locomotive was named after Walter Chrysler.

.Brian Austin

> I haven't been back to the Detroit Zoo
> (actually in Royal Oak) since the middle
> sixties, but if they're still running trains
> they're hauled by 3 locomotives driven, I
> believe, by truck engines through automatic
> transmissions, and having the outline of
> Milwaukee Road streamlined Hudsons. I have a
> vague memory that they were built by
> Chrysler Corporation in the fifties. They
> are very showy pieces and each was named for
> a Detroit industrial magnate of the fifties,
> presumably big donors. The trains were a
> central feature of the "zoological
> park," which is large enough that a
> family with kids wouldn't want to walk round
> trip, but would typically take the train
> between the gate and the other side of the
> park, so I presume they're still running.

> On one trip around 1962 I remember a
> nonstreamlined engine hidden in a fake
> "tunnel" and always wondered about
> it. I presume this was an earlier generation
> of motive power, and that it's the one in
> these photos.

> - Aarne Frobom


raylrhodes@aol.com

...the pictured locomotive was named after Walter Chrysler....

Incidently, he began his work career as a machinist apprentice in the UP roundhouse at Ellis, Kansas.

Chrysler boyhood
ryarger@rypn.org

> ...the pictured locomotive was named after
> Walter Chrysler....

> Incidently, he began his work career as a
> machinist apprentice in the UP roundhouse at
> Ellis, Kansas.

And was a VP of American Locomotive Co. when he bought his first horseless carriage in 1910 (?) and took it apart to see how it worked. A year later, he was out of the railroad biz. And the rest, as we say, is......


hpincus@mindspring.com

"And the rest, as we say, is......

In the collection at the Henry Ford. Until recently at least, Walter P. Chrysler's tool box was on display, including a tube roller that would probably fit a Up 2-8-0, and several other boiler tools.

- Aarne Frobom

Here are three of the paint codes from a mid-fifties Ditzler/PPG fleet catalog I just received...

Zoo Train Blue, 10672
Zoo Train Apple Green, 40910
Zoo Train Yellow, 80413

You can see those three colors as well as the others here...

http://wpporter.worthygems.com/DetroitZooTrains.php