We have three Pullman built heavy weight open window passenger cars that need to have the window shades restored. The fabric is brittle, torn, and discolored and some are water stained. There are also some that need mechanical repairs. The shades were made by Adlake and they will repair and restore them, but the cost is around $700.00 per shade. We have two day coaches and a sleeper/lounge that we operate so there are about 100 shades that need to be restored. That is about $70,000.00! Does anyone have a source for the fabric and a recommendation for a shop that still restores and repairs 100 year old window shades? Fifteen years ago there were several places in the Cleveland area that did this kind of work, but they are no longer in business, and local window covering companies do not have any suggestions other than replacement with some modern option like (ugh!) mini blinds.

Wow. What do their new ones cost? That may be an option if you’re not doing an accurate historic restoration. Aren’t their current #108 shades similar?

Thanks for the reply, Eric. I think that the Adlake #108 shades are much larger than the shades that are in these cars. The three cars are NKP 62, NKP 90, and Mount Baxter. All of them have been used in excursion service and they have wood windows that are made from mahogany. We are replacing some deteriorated windows in 62 and Mount Baxter. NKP 90 just got back to Cleveland after being used in Cincinnati. The cars have been owned and operated by Midwest Railway Preservation Society for more than fifty years. That is more time than when they were in regular revenue service on the railroads. We want to maintain their original appearance as much as possible.

This is, in my opinion, one of the more difficult aspects of a true restoration of a vintage railroad passenger car. Of all the aspects to a restoration, how hard could the window shades be? Well, it is in fact a real challenge to get them to have the look and feel of the 1950's and 1960's era roller shades.

As you note, Adlake is still in business and can "restore" them, but in additional to the very high cost per shade, they aren't going to look quite like what you have.

You will be better off figuring out a way to do them in-house as there is no one I know of in the industry who accurately restores them.

Most of the rollers, grab rubbers, etc can be fairly easily reconditioned in-house.

The really tough part is replicating the shade material. This was usually a two-piece laminated material, with the outside material being the almost-indestructible silver-grey Pantasote. The inside material can be almost any good commercial grade fabric. Not sure how the two materials were laminated but today 3M spray adhesive may be a good option.

You will need someone from your group who can drive an old-fashioned sewing machine to stitch the new material around the mechanism at the bottom/horizontal portion of the shade and also to seam the material at the edges.

I believe you can get a silver-grey material from Adlake that kinda-sorta replicates the Pantasote, but it will not as heavy nor as durable as the Pantasote.

I know this is all not a great answer but hopefully it will be enough to get you started.

It occurs to me that you might want to contact the Strasburg RR as they do a lot of pretty good actual restorations of their heavyweights. Not sure if they just order from Adlake but maybe they do their shades in-house and thus may do these for others as well.

Found this about Pantasote on a GSA page having to do with restoring courtrooms: https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/histori ... Load=88343

Edit: Here is an article in Railway Museum Quarterly about how to replace Pantasote shades, page 12: https://docslib.org/doc/2177150/railway ... -t-e-r-l-y