It snowed here in St. Louis Friday evening. On Saturday morning, Museum of Transportation Trolley Volunteers, assisted by St. Louis County Parks Staff, moved former Philadelphia Rapid Transit PCC car number 2740 into the shop for some annual maintenance.


Here is the car being pulled from the electrified trackage by the Museum's GE 25 ton locomotive, recently donated by Boeing.


Here is the car on the Museum's switching lead, just before it was pushed into the shop building. The Museum of Transportation is located next to the Union Pacific (former Missouri Pacific) main line. I've never seen so many coal trains go by in one day in my life, and I'm from Kentucky, a coal-producing state!

Hope you enjoy, I received a digital camera over Christmas, and this was my first chance to try it out.

Very nice photos! -- Ray

I'll second that, nice shots.

Liked the picture of the UP Coal train passing the streetcar. I think its a definite plus for a major railroad museum to have a busy mainline right outside. Not only for the usual reasons of moving equipment, excursions etc..., but it becomes an important reminder for visitors that "Hey, railroads aren't dead".

The need to convey that the American Railroad is vital, healthy, essential part of the economy is sometimes overlooked in many railroad museums. I've lost track of the number of places where I've seen exhibits that end with the pictures of dirty, banged up equipment of bankrupt railroads in the 60's and not go any further. This is often due to the fact that post 1980 railroading wasn't "neat" enough to the guy desigining the exhibit, or a not within the exact "scope" of a museum's mission statement. Even exhibits, models, photo's of current railroading, when they are in place, can't drive that point home as well as a 100 car coal drak or hot shot intermodal.

Some of the great railroad museums I've seen don't have this dynamic opportunity, for example RRMofPA is a few miles from the PRR Main, the B&O Museum doesn't have the CSX main within view of the museum itself and so on.

How many museums do have that "accidental" attraction? MOT we know, as well as Spencer, SERM in Duluth. I'm sure there are others...

Dave Crosby

Dave, You forgot the place you visited right before we met for dinner last August. Of course, except for 611 & 1218, it's a pretty forgetable place............

While it may be inadvertant that MOT is next to a major rail line, the staff and volunteers have taken advantage of it.




If you notice to the right in the photo, there is a elevated platform with a bench where patrons can watch trains rumble by. The elevation makes it nice to see over the chain link fence.

Right off the top of my head:

Altoona, Pa. (active ex-PRR main and helpers)
North East, PA (lively ex-NYC main)
Galesburg, IL (BNSF)
CSRM Sacramento, CA
Baltimore Streetcar Museum (B&O Belt Line overhead, Amtrak/NS within sight)
Illinois Ry. Museum (parallel UP, ex-C&NW main)
Elkhart, Ind. (ex-NYC main)
Mad River & NKP, Bellevue, OH (ex-NKP and others in town)
Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum, Md. (adjacent to CSX yards)
Durand, MI Union Station
Hamlet, NC depot museum
Conneaut, OH (ex-NYC)

There may be others, such as Ogden, Utah where I'm uncertain on the view, as well as others along rather quiet track, such as the Green Bay museum and the Ellicott City, Md. station (B&O Old Main). Spencer, NC suffers from one problem--you can HEAR the main line, but you can't SEE it!

Gary

How could I forget..... He's right, and there's something special about visiting the Link Museum (the best museum I've ever been to, of any kind, ever...) and then looking out the window as Roanoke's legacy keeps America moving.

Dave Crosby

The SPCRR (the Carter Brothers Group) in Fremont share a common fence with the ex SPC, ex SP, now UP coast line. While the two railroad lines are some 3000' removed, it is possible to take a photo of a horse drawn 1887 flat car with a modern UP or Amtrak train, on the former SPC right of way, in the background.

I'll second that. The photos' composition and clarity seem to capture the ambience of winter railroading.

Sloan

Of course Steamtown and Electric City have Dave's D-L Pocono Main right in front, and CPR's ex-D&H (exx-DL&W) is right across the river.

I notice in this photo numerous tracks but rather modern-looking (aka sheet metal) buildings in the background. Is MOT located at a former yard site or was all this created just to be a museum?

Thanks, as always, in advance.

Scott

MOT is located next to Union Pacific's former Missouri Pacific mainline in what used to be called Barret's Station. The multiple tracks you see in one of the photos is the switching lead for the museum. The photo next to the coal train is actually taken on the switching lead, where there is a tail track to allow cars to be switched without fouling the UP mainline.

There is a lot of track at MOT, especially considering the size of the site, but all of it is there because it was built by volunteers and staff.

During WWII the MoP bypassed the Barrett tunnels by relocating the main lines in cuts south of the tunnel locations.
The area between the new main and the old is where the MOT is located.
In 1947 the area included the Barrett depot, a team track and a spur that served a coal dealer. The west Barrett tunnel was also located on the property.
At first the museum rented the property from the MoP and some 15-18 years ago the railroad donated the ground (about 5 acres) to the museum.
The present museum now has considerable acerage, but the railroad portion
occupies the old MoP property plus quite a bit more that was filled in over the years. The building we now use as a shop was originally occupied by a maker of wood roof trusses. When the railroad donated the ground, they moved to a new location, the building was modified and two tracks laid in it.
The Barrett depot is also part of the museum.
The track was originally put down by the volunteers, but after St. Louis County took over, it was all completely rebuilt by a contractor using material obtained by the volunteers.
If I remember correctly, much of the rail came from the old Wabash Passenger line that ran through Forest Park and is now used by Metrolink.