HOLY CATS, I squealed, IT'S A ZEPHYR!
A three car Zephyr (this is one of three Zephyr's ever made), looking oddly slim from 200 feet away. I saw a side road and within a few moments I was parked about 20 feet from it.
It's about five feet wide and practically demolished.
Curious as to why it was parked in Granite City (and worried it was headed to the Granite City Steel Scrap yard), I googled. Click on the title above and read about how it will be part of the downtown Granite City redevelopment (and one woman's sly comment about using TIF's correctly)! Interesting, I never realized G.C. didn't have a newspaper. I emailed the Mayor of Granite City yesterday asking for permission to photograph what's left of the interior. I would have climbed in but I was only with Beau and (once again) on private property.
Click on the Granite City tag below this post and scroll down for photos of an abandoned downtown Granite City.
For an understanding of just how skinny the train is, note Beau (canine) towards the lower right of the train for scale.
Boarding doors:
Nose of the train with etched Mark Twain signature. The holes above are where a bronze bas relief of Samuel Clemens was once bolted.
Will it be restored to this?
The shovel-nose front which is missing in the above photo was designed to quickly remove cows from the train tracks and looked like this:
THE ZEPHYR IS CURRENTLY OWNED BY BEN BUTTERWORTH, http://midamericarailcar.com
1 comment:
Check out the Flying Yankee - its the Zypher that still lives! The Boston and Maine ran it until 1957. The State of New Hampshire now owns it and the Yankee is being restored to fully operational status. A great story!
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