Frank writes...
Our friend Norm Krentel has sent along a series of extremely interest photos. Accompanying them is a mystery of sorts. The photos were taken by him in the late 1970s on a trip to Omaha, and they show Omaha & Council Bluffs 038 - or what remained of it at the time - sitting derelict. The mystery is, what ever happened to this car?
A bit of background: car 038 was a salt car on the O&CB, rebuilt in 1935 from a single-truck streetcar numbered 180 that itself was built in 1904 by J.M. Jones. It was fitted with a Peckham 89A truck and GE 80 motors and, as of the date these photos were taken, it retained at least its truck and maybe also its (much less rare) motors. The photos show the car stored in South Omaha just west of 26th & O Street; the overpass and stockyards at this location are both long gone today. It was evidently located outside the Auto-Liner building and that company was owned by William Kratville (whose direct connection to IRM is that he also owned our sleeping car Glen Springs at one time) so my best guess is that he owned car 038.
The car was obviously in bad shape by the 1970s but even if it weren't saved intact, I'd hope that its Peckham truck survived. They sure don't build those anymore! Does anyone know for certain what ended up happening to car 038?
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