Ones That Got Away

A few weeks ago somebody suggested listing "ones that got away."  That's actually not a bad idea.  Times being what they are, we don't have much current news to report, so we might as well talk about the past....

If we're discussing equipment that just barely missed being preserved, one of the first things that occurs to me would be the North Shore wooden passenger cars.  The North Shore had a nice selection of wooden equipment in its early years, but due to replacement by the great steel fleet, and a severe drop in business during the Depression, the wooden interurban cars were removed from passenger service by about 1935.  This was before the railway museum movement got started, but still there were three separate opportunities to preserve at least one wooden car.  These went from good to fair to wretched, but sadly they all failed.

300 at North Chicago - Mewhinney

The first opportunity was coach 300, which had been relegated to sleet scraper duty but was otherwise unchanged.   About 1938 it was offered to the CERA to use as a business car and occasional fantrip vehicle.  It was repainted and relettered, but otherwise kept in original condition.  It was used on several North Shore fantrips until the start of WWII.  Pictures of it at this time are plentiful.

300 fantrip in Waukegan - Mewhinney

But when the war started and most of its members went into the service, the CERA was no longer able to take care of the 300, and the railroad found a different use for it in the wartime rush.   It became a locker room for the female train employees for a while.  It was later vandalized and deteriorated rapidly, and was stored out of use.  At the end of the war the car was in bad shape, and the CERA evidently felt unable to restore or maintain it.  In 1945, I suppose nobody yet realized just how much volunteers could accomplish.  The body was used as a diner for a couple of years, then scrapped.

Car 137 in service - Johnson

Opportunity #2 was a group of twelve North Shore cars that had been leased to the CA&E back in 1937.  At Wheaton they were heavily modified.  The couplers were raised, the hot water systems were changed to electric heat, bus jumpers were installed, the sanders were removed, the control system was modified, and so on.   They operated on the CA&E until September 1953, when service was cut back to Forest Park and they became surplus.  Although they had been greatly changed, most of them were at least still complete and serviceable, but no one seems to have tried to preserve one at that time.  IERM acquired its first car in December 1953, and that was sufficient for the first two years or so.  So all twelve ex-North Shore cars went to scrap in 1954.  This was not as good an opportunity as the first, but still entirely feasible, if perhaps the timing had been different.

Car 137 on the scrap line - Johnson

The final opportunity was even more problematic than the others.  Car 202 was built in 1909 as a combine, but it lasted in this service only about seven years, until the first steel combines arrived.   It was then rebuilt into an MD car by removing the seats and installing additional baggage doors at the #2 end.  It remained in occasional MD service until after the war, by which time it was rather deteriorated.  Frank Sherwin acquired it and used it for storage at the foundry.

202 at North Chicago in 1959 - Mizerocki

The decrepit body was later used by IERM, as seen above.  In 1964, it was moved by truck to the new property at Union, where it sat in what is now Yard 5 for many years.  It was partly repainted, but continued to deteriorate.

  

202 at Union - Schmidt

Finally, on the point of collapse, it was scrapped in early 1974, the last North Shore wooden passenger car in existence, although a rather miserable existence at that.  But you can't win them all.

Well, I hope that wasn't too depressing.  We all know this is a very challenging business, and the successes far outweigh the failures.  Suggestions for further installments are welcome!