My friend Ralph Taylor gave me a newspaper clipping you might find interesting: an article from May 1962 about Gerald Brookins acquiring the first four CA&E cars for his new trolley museum in North Olmsted. (The 450's were acquired separately a couple of months later.)Sharp-eyed readers will notice a few errors in general facts about the CA&E, but it's still a good look at Mr. Brookins' intentions. At the time, the only other cars in his collection were the four Fox River lightweights and two Cleveland cars. By modern standards, $20,000 sounds like a bargain!
Now that the collection is being distributed, somebody should make an effort to write a history of the Brookins museum. (I, of course, have no first-hand knowledge.) Gerald Brookins deserves to be remembered with gratitude for all he did to preserve electric railway history.
3 comments:
I've also considered that the history of Trolleyville and the Brookins family be told and published. I've tried to get in touch with Mark Brookins for just this purpose a couple times the last month,, try again after the new year and they've had time to catch their breath.
A great story of dedication and sacrifice, and on some level a bit of a cautionary tale about the events that led to LSE's demise.
I've suggested that a fitting memorial to the Brookins family might be to leave an ex-Trolleyville car lettered for the Columbia Park & Southwestern. For example Vera Cruz 19, is it that vital to have it back as a Mexico car ? It was a CP&SW car longer so there is historic precedent.
Doubt that will come to reality though. Perhaps one of the next IRM streets could be named.
John C
FRTM 304 was delivered today and local ABC 7 Chicago was on hand.
The emotion of the FRTM members is both palpable and understandable.
Congratulations to them.
Not sure how long these links typically last...
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7098663
John C
Jim Blower used to have a lot of stories from working at Brookins. He was a painter and night watchman at IRM for many years. He also wrote a decent volume on interurbans in northern Ohio.
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