Noblesville update

A couple of people I know stopped by the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville this past weekend and sent in some updated information.

The last two of the museum's 4000s have been scrapped. Car 4257, shown above in a recent photo, was built by Cincinnati in 1922 and sold by the CTA in 1975. It was originally bought by the Oakland County Parks & Recreation Commission and I think was one of the 4000s stored in Michigan City on the South Shore for a few years. Sometime around 1980 it was acquired by ITM and has been sitting in dead storage in Noblesville since.

And then there's the 4388, shown above on the scrap track a couple of weeks ago with signs of having been switched by an end loader or something similar. This is another typical 4000, built by Cincinnati in 1924 and sold by the CTA to ITM (then IMOTAC) in 1979. The loss of these two cars is no great tragedy, as there are still many 4000s in various stages of repair in other museums, but it does bring to a close a large chapter in ITM's history. The museum at one time owned no fewer than 11 of these cars, by my count, with some acquired for restoration and others acquired as parts sources for the planned restoration of interurban car bodies.

A loss of considerably more significance is the recent scrapping of Evansville & Ohio Valley 154, shown above in a photo taken a few weeks ago. This was a standard interurban-style General Electric steeplecab built pretty early, in 1912, for an obscure line in Portsmouth, Ohio called the Portsmouth Street Railroad & Light Company. Later it went to a slightly better-known interurban line in southwestern Indiana, the Evansville & Ohio Valley, before rounding out its career on a short industrial line owned by Cook Transportation. It was an early acquisition by IMOTAC, purchased by the museum in 1965 around when it moved into Forest Park in Noblesville, but has never run at the museum. Although historic its condition had worsened steadily over the years and no museum stepped up to purchase it.

That said, there was a surprising turn when it was revealed that the Indianapolis Peter Witt, car 153, actually has not (yet) been scrapped as previously reported! The scorched patch of earth thought to be its former location was actually further out in the museum yard, while the Peter Witt still resides back in the forest swallowed by trees. So for the moment, at least, it has been put back on the list.

The traction collection at ITM continues to shrink. Other than Lackawanna MU trailers, of which the museum still has four, the only electric cars stored outside are the aforementioned Peter Witt, CRANDIC 55, South Shore 205, Union Traction 437, the Twin Branch engine, and a forlorn Lafayette Birney body. Four other electrics, a couple of them privately owned, are stored inside. The museum's electric collection now stands at 14 pieces.