NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION

This museum on 129 acres on the west side of St. Louis  has an extensive collection of railroad equipment, perhaps 25 automobiles, one airplane (C 47 “Gooney Bird”) and a tug boat. Museum additions have been built beginning in 2006, including new buildings for a visitors center and to house its automobile collection, and a miniature train to take visitors on a short ride. We visited it on May 15. A gully washer storm dumped a lot of rain on us, so we had to cut the visit short after an hour,  just as I was getting to the interesting part of the display of some 70 locomotives.

 

At the right is a Traffic brand truck made in the St. Louis area. Its popularity was based on its being cheaper to buy than competing trucks of similar size.

At the left is a Moon touring car. 

 

 

This is Chrysler’s turbine car, said to be the only one in operating condition on public display. It will run on anything combustible, fortunately including gasoline! Under the hood shown below is the turbine.

 

Now on the to the locomotives! This is the museum’s oldest, made when Abraham Lincoln was President. The  pistons are inside the frame in the black boxes on top of the front truck, so the rods driving the wheels also are inside the frame.

 

 

This is a White school bus converted to run on rails, a design inspired by the Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose motor units.

Heavy rain at this point of my tour prevented me from getting pictures of other notable locomotives here – General Motors’ diesel locomotive A-B set built in the late 1930s to demonstrate the advantages of diesel-electric power over steam, a steam locomotive of the unusual Camelback configuration, a Forney tank engine used to pull elevated trains in Chicago, and a  Union Pacific “Big Boy”, the largest  successful steam locomotive. Passenger cars also were shown.

I did not see any narrow gauge equipment.

 

I suspect that many of the railroad locomotives and cars at the museum have received only cosmetic restoration. Lots of unrestored railroad cars are in a structure off limits to visitors. Restoration probably is done only by volunteers, so it is a lengthy process.