Farewell to Cleveland

Today we finished preparing our three steel CA&E cars for shipment to the Museum. Actual loading and transit should start tomorrow (Monday). A substantial crew of Museum volunteers went to Cleveland to do the work and make this possible.

I arrived early enough on Friday to do some sightseeing. There isn't much left at the old Trolleyville location; all of the track and line poles have been removed, except for this one by the office. The display track in the parking lot is gone. If you look closely, you'll see "Trolleyville" on the sign over the door.

The city park along the Rocky River is quite scenic (though not railroad-related) so I did quite a bit of hiking and picture taking there. And we all had some great eating and conversation together.

Here's the 460 in the yard. This was the last car with a pantograph, so it was being used as a locomotive (and fan trip vehicle!)

I was too busy to take many pictures. I met Steve Heister from NORM on Saturday; he took a lot of photos and will post them on the CA&E list.

Here we are on Saturday trying to remove the steps and pilot from one end of the 451. The design of the St. Louis cars makes this incredibly difficult, much harder than any of the others. Who knew? From left to right, Alex Mahoney, Jon Fenlaciki, Warren Lloyd, and Frank Sirinek. Alex is a former Lake Shore volunteer who worked with us both days and was a tremendous asset. He's now an honorary IRM member. Thanks!

Our friend Walt Stafa showed up on Saturday and was a great help, as always. Here he is helping with the 409.

Photo by Steve Heister

Of course, I must also thank Tim O'Donnell for all of his help and coöperation, and Carl Wilgosz, an RTA employee. They went out of their way to assist us.

If I'm forgetting anybody, let me know!

Finally, here's a portrait of our three cars in the yard during a switch move.