Ones That Got Away - Illinois Terminal

Streamliner on the line to Peoria  (Scalzo - Mewhinney)

When the Illinois Terminal ended mainline passenger service in 1956 and electric suburban service in 1958, preservation of the equipment seems to have been a rather haphazard process, compared to what happened several years later with the CA&E and North Shore.  Some cars were donated to MOT, some were purchased by the Illini Railroad Club, two by Bob Bruneau, etc.

PCC crossing N. Market St. in St. Louis  (Volkmer - Mewhinney)

Two groups of cars that were thought to have possibilities for further service were the eight 300 series streamliners and the eight double-ended PCCs in the 450-457 series. They were at first stored on the Hawthorne Coal tracks in St. Louis.  Here they suffered vandalism and were inhabited by derelicts.  They were then moved into the subway, but that made the situation no better, and the damage continued. 

After end of service, but apparently before vandalism started.  (R. Hill photo, Mewhinney)

We do not have numbers, but the railroad presumably wanted to sell either or both groups of cars as a complete set at a substantial price.  Of course the fledgling railway museums and private individuals who might have been interested in purchasing one or two cars for preservation could not possibly acquire a complete group.  About 1964 Red Arrow considered purchasing the PCCs for their Ardmore line, but they were already in very poor shape after six years in storage, and the line was converted to bus instead.  (Mewhinney)

At that time, PCC cars 450 and 451 were bought by a private individual, who then donated the 450 to the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington, and the 451 to the Connecticut Railway Museum at Warehouse Point.   They're both still in existence.  It's fortunate that at least these two were saved, as double-ended PCCs are very rare.  Other PCCs, of course, are common in preservation

About 1966, the remaining cars were purchased by Biermann Iron and Metal, a St. Louis scrap dealer, whose material yard was located next to, and in the shadow of the approach to the McKinley Bridge.    The other six PCC cars were scrapped.  

451 on last day of service - Mewhinney

The streamliners, on the other hand, were unique and the final interurban cars built in America.  But Biermann put a high price on them and was never willing to negotiate a price that IRM or anyone else could afford, in spite of their badly deteriorated interiors.  The bodies sat in the scrapyard just below the IT main for many years, and there are several pictures of them in books.  The last one was not scrapped until sometime in the 1980's, although by that time they were empty shells and any thought of restoring them had long passed.

This happens more often than it should, perhaps: the owner of something more or less historic has his own inflated idea of its value, and is unwilling to listen to offers, even though the only alternative is to scrap the item, or let it rust away until it's worthless.  I can think of several other examples of this, and probably you can too.