Friday, October 2, 2009

We Win!

It's just been announced that IRM has been awarded six cars from the Brookins collection at LSE in Cleveland. These include the five CA&E cars we wanted, plus an open car from Vera Cruz.
  • CA&E #36: Stephenson, built 1902. This is the only surviving car from this order, and one of only two from the first generation of CA&E cars.
  • CA&E #319: Jewett, 1914. This car was identical to our 321, but less modified over its lifetime and in far better condition.
  • CA&E #409: Pullman, 1923. The only surviving car from the first order of steel cars.
  • CA&E #451 and 460: St. Louis, 1945. (Curved-sides) Two of the final order of passenger equipments.
  • Vera Cruz #19: Brill, 1914. An open car from Vera Cruz, Mexico. The lack of an open car has been a significant gap in our collection. Unfortunately, there just aren't any open cars from the Midwest in existence, so this car will be a welcome addition.
Huge thanks are due to Julie Johnson, Nick Kallas, Stan Wdowikowski, and everyone else who contributed to this cause. They made this possible -- and they even did it without the help of high-profile politicians or celebrities!
By the way, I'd like to know where the other CA&E cars are going, if anybody knows.

Update: Thanks to John and Joe for updates on where the other cars are going:
CA&E 303 to Connecticut Trolley Museum
CA&E 453 to Electric City Trolley Museum
CA&E 458 to S. Elgin
Fox River 304 to S. Elgin (this is the better of the two)
Fox River 303 to Northern Ohio Railway Museum

We'll add some more info later, I'm posting this from work. Hoorah, hoorah!
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 2, 2009 at 2:29 PM

    Two more CA&E woods,, looks like the Hicks Car Works got itself a little bit of job security !

    So far a great ending to what was a sad ending for a fine organization (Trolleyville). The Brookins family should be remembered for their many years of efforts in rail history and preservation.

    John C

    ReplyDelete
  2. David WilkinsOctober 2, 2009 at 2:49 PM

    IRM! IRM! IRM!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joe StuparOctober 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM

    There is now a full story, with a list of where all the cars are going, on the Shore Line Historical Society website. The link to the story is:

    http://www.shore-line.org/trolleyville_update2.html

    Joe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Randall HicksOctober 2, 2009 at 9:31 PM

    Thanks, Joe. That answers all my questions.

    ReplyDelete

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