News from Michigan

A couple of updates from Michigan regarding extant electric cars have popped up in the last couple of days. These don't involve updates to the PNAERC list per se, but they're still interesting.

The first is that Grand Rapids Grand Haven & Muskegon 8, the "Merlin," is in the process of getting a new home. It hasn't moved - rather, a substantial brick enclosure is being constructed around the car by the Coopersville Historical Museum. The car already had a fairly nice shelter over it, but of course this will obviously be an improvement and will keep the car entirely protected from the weather. The shelter is also built to mimic the style of the history museum itself, located just a few feet away in the old interurban substation. Very impressive! The photo above comes from the museum's Facebook page.

In less positive news, an abandoned building in Kalamazoo caught fire yesterday and was heavily damaged. This wouldn't be very newsworthy to us except that an ex-Michigan Railways double-truck snow sweeper has been attached to one side of this building for quite some time. It appears that the sweeper was largely unharmed, and that the fire damage was on the other side of the building, but if the building gets demolished, the sweeper will probably go too. This car isn't on the PNAERC roster, but rather on my "non-preserved electric cars" list. I'm not sure who built it or when, but there's reputed to be an excellent book coming out soon on Michigan Railways, so answers may be forthcoming. Anyone interested in a snow sweeper body?