Lake Shore Electric car moved

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.

Lake Shore Electric restoration work

So I recently came across this post from a blog about Lorain County, Ohio history that details some progress made on Lake Shore Electric 38. The car in question is a steel freight motor, homebuilt in Sandusky in 1920, that was retired in 1938 and moved to a fish and game club in Vermilion, Ohio. It remained there for 70 years until it was purchased by a fan of the LSE in 2008 and moved to its current home in Avon Lake, just east of Lorain in Lake Shore Electric territory.

During the past few years the car has been sand-blasted, repainted, had new (albeit house) windows installed, and it sounds like there are plans to put it on trucks and made it the centerpiece of a new LSE-themed museum. If and when that happens I'll update the car's ownership information, but for now it's just nice to see that it's being well kept up. Of the four LSE freight motor bodies in existence, this one is probably in the best shape (identical steel car 39 in Homerville is derelict while wood cars 42 at Northern Ohio and 46 at Mad River & NKP, both ex-coaches, are in tired condition).

UPDATE: As it just so happens, just hours after this post Laddie Vitek e-mailed me a link to an article with updated information on car 38. It has indeed been placed on trucks and is now on display in front of the Artstown Gallery shopping center on Lake Road in Avon Lake. I'm updating the car's owner to the shopping center, a public entity, rather than leaving it listed as under private ownership (even though it hasn't really changed owners so much as changed locations). Click here for the article.