Blaine Hays photo
There are four steel interurban cars from the Lake Shore Electric preserved. Car 174 is a body on trucks that was cosmetically restored by a museum in Newark, Ohio; cars 171 and 181 are car bodies stored in poor condition at Seashore and Northern Ohio, respectively; and that leaves LSE 167, the only one of the four that wasn't part of the 1918 order from Jewett. Car 167 was built by that company, too, but dates to 1915. It's been privately owned for decades, and by the 1990s had been fixed up quite nicely on the exterior. It even acquired (or kept?) truss rods and was placed on CTA 4000-series MCB trucks with some electrical equipment hung under it for appearance.
Unfortunately a quarter century sitting on a siding at a tourist railroad in Wellington, Ohio didn't do the car any favors. It has now made its way to Avon Lake, Ohio, and has been set down behind the old LSE Beach Park station. Its trucks are stored alongside it. Plans for it are uncertain, but LSE freight motor 38 was cosmetically restored (sort of) a few years ago and plinthed out in the parking lot in front of the Artstown Gallery shopping center, so perhaps car 167 will join it. Thanks to Bill Wulfert for passing along this news, which comes via a NORM newsletter.
As far as I know, the other electric car owned by the same family, an Interstate Public Service freight motor that was heavily rebuilt by American Aggregates into a diesel-electric, is still on the siding in Wellington. But corrections and updates are always appreciated.
Dennis Lamont has been working with Thomas Patton on several LSE projects, including a book. As of 5 years ago there was talk of making an LSE museum in an old bowling alley at the Artstown Shopping Center in Avon Lake. -O. Anderson
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