The Final "Meanwhile in St. Louis" Post!

David writes......
 This is the final "Meanwhile in St. Louis" post.  The movers come to pack us on Monday and we leave after load out is completed on Tuesday.  We're stopping in Omaha on the way to see some friends, then it's west along the Overland Route to Salt Lake City!  I have the old Wilkins Law Office boarded up, as pictured here:

Preparing for the move has kept me away from the Museum of Transportation the last month, but I do have some progress photos that might be of interest to our readers.

First, the restoration of St. Louis Public Service 1743 is in its final stages.  The interior is going back together and volunteers have began to tackle the control system and get it fully operational.  

One of the neat aspects of the restoration has been the reproduction of St. Louis Public Service roll signs for the car.  Here, I set the side sign to the 70-GRAND route, the busiest streetcar route on the old SLPS system.  

One of the aspects of the restoration I have been working on, even remotely, is the reproduction of vintage car advertising.  Here, we see the reproduced "No Smoking" ad that graced the front and back of every SLPS bus and streetcar in the late 1940s.  Our initial effort is laminated heavy card stock.  However, we may try to have this printed in vinyl, which is more durable.  

This ad probably looks familiar.  Bruce Wells actually led the effort in the early 1990s to reproduce this ad.  This particular ad came from Randall who gave it to me from a stack provided him by the late Julie Johnson.  Bruce and Aaron Isaacs from the Minnesota Streetcar Museum have both been very helpful in providing us with imagery of period car ads.  

This past Saturday was my last official day at MOT.  I was the motorman on St. Louis Water Division #10.  Here, we've put the car up at the end of the day and just backed the Philly PCC on top of it.  

Finally, our volunteer group leader at MOT gave me a special going away present.  It's the glass headlight side numberplate from Louisville & Nashville Railroad steam locomotive number 1961, a 2-8-4.  He acquired it in the late 1950s when he was in college in Cincinnati.  I need to build a frame around it to keep it together, but it will be a treasured artifact.  

Next week brings new adventures and a new chapter in my life.  I will be sure to send an update or two from the Great Salt Lake City!