Sunday, November 2, 2014

2014-10-29 Transportation Museum St. Louis

Sometimes in spite of your planning and Internet searching you just don't know what you're going to get when you put a museum on the itinerary.

The Museum of Transportation was a wonderful mix of the history of transportation, model train enthusiast's layouts, a full train yard of unusual trains, and a miniature train that operated around a loop of track.

This looks like a brand new CP Huntington locomotive - the same one the amusement parks put in.



What an "awesome!" way to start the museum tour.



A stagecoach set upon railroad rolling stock. I never knew they did this but it sure makes for an easy transition from stagecoaches to railroads.



There were a bunch of old guys setting up a model train layout for the Christmas time. Here is a picture of what it looked like last year.



Ah, a DISNEY connection to trains.



I loved their display cases. So easy to read and in chronological order.



Out of THIS building and then into the Automobile Building and we see so many beautiful cars and a big display about Route 66.



And there is the Coral Court Motel again. Each room had its own garage.



A real Milk Wagon



Who EVER gets to SEE a Stanley Steamer?



This beautiful display of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air was mint condition. The car was given to the owner of Enterprise Car Rental, Jack Taylor, by his employees. It only has 60 miles on it. He donated it to the museum.



Outside there were row after row of trains. Some we could board and others were just there to gawk at.



Go ahead, gawk



And gawk again, if you must, at this 1955 Aerotrain. It was light weight in construction but noisy and rode poorly at high speeds. They finally used them in Chicago for passenger service.



The Union Pacific "Big Boy" was built in 1941 and is the largest steam locomotive ever built. You could get into the cab of this and play with all of the guages.




They had a snow plow and a snow thrower.




What??? Illinois Terminal Railbus from 1939. It was adapated to the rail and used to transport passengers between Grafton and Alton, Illinois.



Even though it was very cold today the sun was shining and we were looking at shiny trains and cars. What a great day.

4 comments:

  1. 1957 Chev. Bel Air. 259K for min condition. Amazing. The 1957 Bel Air is among the most recognizable American cars of all time. Just some fyi.

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  2. Mint Condition that is. The others are just under that maximum price that I saw. I was just wondering what the est. price of it was.

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  3. I can't imagine what the price of a 1957 Chevy would be that has no miles on it. The body, paint, upholstery were all in new condition. It was like it had just rolled off the factory line.

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  4. High, my dream car. I can picture it pulling a '57 Shasta, down Route 66, of course.
    Janet

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