Raise your hand if you've ever rode a train to school.
Now raise your hand if you've ever rode a bus to school.
(A man from Grafton, IL stands up in the crowd)
"Who here has rode both a train and a bus to school?"
Crickets.
Meet "The Dinky." For 20 years, 1933 to 1953, it provided service for Principia College students between Grafton and Alton, both part of the St. Louis Metro. Before what's now IL Rte 100 was dedicated in the 1960s, The Dinky was the result of the perfect storm of decommissioned railroad tracks and three converted White Motor Co. city buses.
Okay but why did they call it "The Dinky?" According to TNMOT, a former driver of the bus said it was coined by students--even writing songs and poems about it. It's clear why: The thing only seats 26 passengers!
According to a St. Louis Post Dispatch article, surviving Grafton residents said riding The Dinky was "a big deal." I mean, can you imagine how beautiful the ride would have been at sunset over the Mississippi River? So much so that last year, Grafton's Ben Allen, who owns a restaurant at the location The Dinky used to turnaround, sought out to find a replica bus that was converted to the one you see in this photo. They were able to salvage parts from a White Motor Co. bus that was built during the same years The Dinky did, and a copy of the rail bus you see in this photo sits at the Edward Amburg History Museum and Visitor’s Center in Grafton.
Okay but why did they call it "The Dinky?" According to TNMOT, a former driver of the bus said it was coined by students--even writing songs and poems about it. It's clear why: The thing only seats 26 passengers!
According to a St. Louis Post Dispatch article, surviving Grafton residents said riding The Dinky was "a big deal." I mean, can you imagine how beautiful the ride would have been at sunset over the Mississippi River? So much so that last year, Grafton's Ben Allen, who owns a restaurant at the location The Dinky used to turnaround, sought out to find a replica bus that was converted to the one you see in this photo. They were able to salvage parts from a White Motor Co. bus that was built during the same years The Dinky did, and a copy of the rail bus you see in this photo sits at the Edward Amburg History Museum and Visitor’s Center in Grafton.
