Update From Kirkwood

I had a chance to visit the ersatz Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri last week and came away with a couple of updates. First of all, I say "ersatz" because it's no longer known as the Museum of Transportation. Back under private management after a three-decade period under the authority of St. Louis County, the museum is now known as the National Museum of Transportation. Their website and logo actually list this as TNMOT, so apparently they've got either an Ohio State alum or a fan of Wisconsin interurban lines in their management, but regardless the name of the organization has been updated on the PNAERC list (albeit sans leading T). I also got to view progress on Kansas City Public Service 1533, a Birney which is undergoing a major rebuilding effort including a lot of steel replacement.

The big news, though, was that a new acquisition was en route and has since arrived. San Francisco Municipal Railway 1140, a PCC built in 1946 as St. Louis Public Service 1711, was offered for sale by Muni recently along with a collection of other PCC cars that had been in dead storage for years. This particular car ran in St. Louis until 1957, when it went to San Francisco and operated (I think) until about 1981. Muni stored it until 1994 when it was sold to an individual in Lodi, California. In 2003 it was bought back by Muni and has been in storage since. It still wears its old Muni "wings" livery but doesn't seem to have suffered the vandalism and deterioration that some of the cars in storage did. NMOT didn't acquire the car for permanent preservation, but as a parts source for their identical car 1743. However plans for car 1140 are not final and the museum may hold onto it, at least for a while.

As for the other PCC cars put up for sale by Muni, I haven't seen anything about disposition. The folks in St. Louis said that 1140 was the only car in the bunch that wasn't being scrapped but I don't know whether this is confirmed.