Ohio Railway Museum Postcards - Set 3

        Photos taken c.1956-1960 when the museum added two steam locomotives and the oldest piece of equipment in the  collection.  Photos by BJ Kern.  Alex Campbell Collection.

Detroit Street Railways #3876, a Peter Witt style streetcar.   #3876 was built by the St. Louis Car Co. in 1931.  Ohio Public Service (OPS) #21 is in the background. 

Steam locomotive #1 came from the Marble Cliff Quarries Co in Columbus.  It was built by the Vulcan Iron  Works in Wilkes Barre, Pa.  #1 weight only 20 tons yet it had enough power to pull #578 (below).  It carried one thousand gallons of water and a half ton of coal.

Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) #578 was the pride of the museum in the 1960's.  #578 is an E2a 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger locomotive built in 1910 by the American Locomotive Co. in Richmond, Va.  In the 1960's and 70's it was steamed up about five times a year.  Throughout the 1950’s, #578 worked on the N&W’s Norton Branch with sister E2a #553 pulling local passenger trains.  It was retired from active service in 1958 and it was moved to ORM on Feb. 12, 1959.

#578 showing  its massive tender.  When it was built it had a much smaller tender which, of course, required more frequent coal and water stops.

The oldest piece of equipment at the museum was Kansas City Public Service Co. #472.  A four wheel street car built in 1900 by the Brownell Car Co.  It is shown behind the  car barn along side OPS interurban #64.  Even in 1958 it was difficult to find a streetcar this old still in service.  The only reason it survived this long is because it had been converted into a piece of work equipment.  The museum members restored it to its original configuration as a passenger car.