Visited National Transportation Museum in Kirkwood (St. Louis) today and spent about four hours there. They have a wonderful and quite large collection of steam, diesel and electric locomotives as well as many freight cars, way cars and passenger cars and all sorts of misc. equipment.

In my humble opinion some of the best and most historically important equipment are not in good spots for the visitor to see. Best example is that I had to almost crawl over junk and avoid poison ivy to get at the GG1 and EP5 electrics on "display" while a bunch of what I consider to be junk was "front and center" on display.

Some really cool stuff includes a UP Big Boy, a UP Centenial (in really bad shape but you do get to go up into the cab and wander around inside to your hearts content). They also have one of the first EMD FT units painted in green and gold GM colors. They have a really beautifully restored EL SD45 in spectacular paint. They have a former CB&Q E8 that went to BN for Metra Service and then to MARC and now in the museum...it is cosmetically restored and painted in CB&Q silver and looks really great but it is technically in back of the museum grounds and I was actually breakinig the rules by going back to see it. They also have old BN 9921, former Metra unit and former MARC (interesting note: The "restored" E is not operable but the other one which is really in bad cosmetic shape with lots of rust is operable...go figure!

There is a UP U28C that is partially dis-assembled for you to look at the mechanical systems which was very nice.

Other interesting pieces of equipment are one of the two Aerotrains from the Rock Island, a former MBTA RDC, etc, etc. The museum is along the UP St. Louis to K.C. main line and they have set up a small raised viewing stand so you can sit and watch the U.P. mainline freights and Amtrak come by (double tracked main)...nice touch.

The entrance price of $4 is well worth it and actually quite cheap for what you get to see. I would enthusiastically recommend this museum to anybody who can get there.

Sorry for rambling on but I am very tired and will stop now. More to come as my memory improves or if you have any questions.

Jim[zzz]