In December 1944, the Capital Transit Company agreed to donate WRECo. 650, now CTCo. 884, to the Electric Railroader's Association (ERA) in New York City. There is no documentation for what prompted CTCo. to preserve the car. Ed Schell speculates that Edward Merrill, president of CTCo. may have been motivated by reading an article in the October 1944 issue of Transit Lines, the company's employee newsletter. At the time Schell was employed as a Traffic Clerk.

The Transit Line's article was about Ed Schell's interest in collecting transfers, and included a paragraph about Schell's membership in the Electric Railroaders Association, and his involvement in St. Louis Electric Railway Historical Society. The article stated that "this latter group has endeavored to preserve old streetcars, so that they won't entirely disappear from the American scene." To Schell's surprise, a letter later appeared on his desk in his office at CTCo. one day in December 1944. Recalling the event almost 60 years later, Schell said that in the letter Mr. Merrill offered then CTCo. No. 884 to the ERA.