Lake Shore Electric 150

Let's take a tour of our Lake Shore Electric interurban car, #150. A history of this car, with in-service pictures, is here.

And courtesy of Tom Hunter, to the left is a picture of the car while it was at Pittsburgh, c. 1978. It was later mounted on trucks from CTA 4000's which we sold them.

(R) Here it is in May, 1980. Isn't it amazing what paint can do?

The body was acquired by IRM in 2000. Frank repainted it, and it is now on display in Barn 8. I'm now using it as a workroom and for parts storage, so please excuse the clutter. And watch where you step.

This is the motorman's position, what's left of it. While the car was a flower shop, it acquired wallpaper advertising garden supplies, which you can see here above the windows.

The seats are long gone, but we have one seat that is thought to have come from a Lake Shore car.

The Lake Shore heavily rebuilt these cars during their 30+ years in service, and with all the adaptations to other uses since then, it's often hard to know what parts date back to its service days.

The right half of this bulkhead between the smoker and the main compartment was removed. And that's not an illusion, the framing is twisted. When the car was removed from service, most of the metal parts of the underframe were removed, such as the truss rods, needle beams, and so on, so the body is not very sturdy.

It has had two different types of AC house wiring installed. We're looking at the lower wall, near the floor. The upper socket was installed in the 1930's and this system is no longer connected. At the bottom is a newer AC system, which includes the lights, and this is still usable. And in between you can see the ghostly outline of a walkover seat frame.

One nice feature that has survived is the oval window at the rear of the car. This used to be in the toilet compartment, but the compartment has been removed. And I don't know whether that was while the car was still in service.

The interior was completely painted at least twice, but at some point somebody started stripping paint from the beautiful original woodwork. There are holes in the wood and missing sections of inlay everywhere, however.

The clerestory window hardware is still in place. Because this was a single-ended car, they didn't need ventilators. The window on the left is hinged at the left end, and by turning the handle, you can angle the window out slightly. Unfortunately, nearly all of the clerestory sash are in bad shape, and are trying to collapse.

I'm pretty sure this strange little window in the bulkhead is not original. I've never seen anything like it. And the lettering above the doorway for the Niles Car & Mfg. Co. -- is that original?

Due to the car's poor structural condition and the many missing parts of various sorts, I don't foresee this car ever being restored. But it is still an interesting display piece and is an excellent example of the typical Midwest interurban car from the Ohio-Indiana network.