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St. Louis, Missouri:
Museum of Transportation

Description

The Museum of Transportation is located outside the city of St. Louis in the western suburb of Kirkwood, and is operated by the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation. Besides a large collection of railroad locomotives and cars (including many unique items), and a significant collection of automobiles and automotive history, it has a short operating electric trolley line, about 1000 feet (300 m) long, a small but interesting publically accessible collection of electric railway equipment, and a much larger collection in storage.

For some reason, the museum's trolley line and electric railway collection seem to receive very little publicity, and are barely mentioned on the museum's own Web site. When I visited in September 2006, I had little idea of what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised.

This page focuses on the museum's electric railway and other transit-related items.

Other Sites

Pictures

Three cars are in operating condition. I was able to ride two of them (10, 2740), but did not get a chance to ride the third (44).

Car 10 (St. Louis Water Works Railway)

When the The St. Louis Water Division built a new water purification plant in 1894 on the Mississippi River at Chain of Rocks (just south of the present-day Interstate 270 bridge), it also built a railroad line along the river to carry materials and workers northward from the city. At first the Water Division contracted with the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad to run steam-powered trains over the line, then in 1902 it electrified the line and began to operate it directly. In addition to carrying Water Works employees, the line carried nearby residents to a connection with a city streetcar line, and city residents to a popular park at the Water Works.

The Water Works streetcars were discontinued in 1935-36 in favor of buses, but the line and cars were not dismantled. Service was restored in 1944, for Water Works employees only, because of wartime gasoline and tire shortages, and finally ended for good in 1955.

The Museum of Transportation received three of the remaining cars, and eventually restored #10 to full operating condition. It began operation in summer 2002.

[picture #1] | [picture #2] Two views of #10 at the east end of the line. This end is a loop which goes around a group of display locomotives.

[picture] At the west end of the line, next to the Abbott Building which houses the publically viewable electric traction collection. This end is a stub-end so cars have to reverse here.

[picture] Interior of car #10.

[picture] The motorman at work.

[picture] The logo on the side of #10.

Car 2740 (Philadelphia PCC Streetcar)

This car is painted in the colors of the Philadelphia Transportation Company. It's a single-ended car, so it has to run backwards half the time.

[picture] Front and [picture] rear views at the east end of the line.

[picture] #2740 pauses just in front of the Abbott Building so the motorman can set a switch.

[picture] Interior of #2740.

Car 44 (Chicago Transit Authority)

[picture] This car was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1960 for Chicago's elevated and subway lines, using trucks and controls designed for PCC-type streetcars. In fact, some components came from Chicago's own PCC streetcars which were replaced by electric trolleybuses and diesel buses in the 1950s. It ran mostly on the Evanston line (today's Purple Line) until 1993, and came to the museum in 1998.

Locomotive 9, "Charles H." (Lake Street Elevated Railroad, Chicago)

[picture] Chicago's first elevated railroads (the South Side and Lake Street lines) initially used steam power. This Forney type locomotive built by the Rhode Island Locomotive Works ran on the Lake Street 'L' (part of today's Green Line) from 1893 until 1896.

Locomotive 1595 (Illinois Terminal Railroad)

[picture #1] | [picture #2] This boxcab electric interurban freight locomotive was built by the Illinois Tracton System (later the Illinois Terminal Railroad) in its shops in 1910, and operated until 1956. It has eight axles, each with its own motor, arranged on four trucks. This design distributed the unit's weight so as not to overload lightweight track and bridges, and allowed it to negotiate the sharp turns in street trackage.

Railbus 206 (Illinois Terminal Railroad)

[picture] This gasoline-powered vehicle, converted from a school bus, ran on the Illinois Terminal's Alton - Grafton branch.

Locomotive E-2 (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad)

[picture] This is the only surviving "gearless bi-polar" locomotive built by General Electric in 1920 for the Milwaukee Road's electrified section through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.

This page was last updated on 23 May 2007, and reviewed on 25 January 2008.

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