Monday, February 23, 2015

I Once Made a Bus Stop

A streetcar fan making a bus stop?  Quite improbable you say.  But true.
I made the bus stop at Orange Empire Railway Museum (out in the desert about 60 miles east of LA).  The museum is about 100 acres.  Often they run a bus among the car barns.  The bus stop I made is near the museum entrance.
Here is it just after I made it.




















I renovated the bench, a real LA bus stop bench that had been in the outback of the museum for years.  I even planted some desert ground cover.
And here comes the bus.


























And I even hung a bus stop sign (it's an artifact including the bracket).

While renovating the bench I found inside the back this sign of a real tire dealer still in existence in LA (third generation of the family).


















One of the museum member makes commercial signs so I photographed the sign at high resolution and he made a new sign of modern materials and I added it to the bench.  The tire dealer donated $1000 to the museum.






















Oh, the bus!  It may even be the same model I drove in Willmette, IL during my Northwestern University days.



















These pictures were taken during the winter of 2011-2012.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome story, Marty ! I have seen that bench and now I know why !

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  2. The sign finally faded away in the sun, but bus, stop, trolley and bench are all alive and well.

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