Chicago "Matchbox" painted as Jackson, MI car

One of the newest organizations in traction preservation is the Lost Railway Museum of Grass Lake, Michigan. This tiny hamlet is home to two apparently unrelated traction history organizations, LRM and the town historical society. The latter owns the body of a Michigan Electric interurban combine, 29 (identical car 28 is under restoration at the Illinois Railway Museum) while LRM acquired its first car in 2016. This is an ex-Chicago "Matchbox" streetcar, CSL 1137, previously CSL 1288. Car 1137 was on display when LRM opened its new, and fairly impressive, display hall to the public earlier this summer. But there's a twist: the car is in the process of being painted as Michigan United Traction 47, a virtually identical car that once ran in Jackson, MI but is long gone. The Chicago "Matchboxes" were a standard St. Louis Car Company design that was sold to a number of different street railway companies including the systems in both Chicago and Jackson. So car 1137 does make a good stand-in for MUT 47. It remains to be seen how far the restoration of this car progresses. The car's record in PNAERC has been updated to reflect its new identity and status on public display.