Here is a link to a thread on Smokstak:

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129469

It mainly deals with the current status of a mystery Frick steam traction engine at a scrapyard, that may be threatened with scrapping.

Posting here because there is mention of wooden boxcars. Available?? Don't know. Check out the thread, and maybe there are wooden "Damsels in Distress" for the right knight........

^That thread is from 2006. Who knows if any of that is still around?

I think this is the scrap yard they are talking about at Bing maps:

http://binged.it/1dQ7hLV

The thread is current, as of today, Wednesday January 22, 2014.

Oh, lawd.

That scrapyard has been the stuff of legend for a while, more for its stash of antique cars than the boxcars.

This place was Gem City Iron & Metal, your typical rural scrap operation loading cars along the rail line. It has been taken over recently by Cycle Systems, a chain of recyclers in southwest Va. perhaps more famous for scrapping N&W diesels and brokering off their air horns through a particular dealer. That could well explain the Frick being moved--not included with the sale?

Now, let's discuss the steam locos that used to be there.......
American Viscoe 0-4-0ST 6 (Baldwin #57994, 09/1924) and a second 0-4-0ST (H.K. Porter #7209, 1934), both in New York State at last report..........

The Google Street View, from July 2012, is much more interesting.

So..no one knows definitively what is there despite the place is a legend? Hmmm

Just found this bio of William Early Aust, which explains a bit:

http://books.google.com/books?id=TjsjIe ... pg=RA1-PA3

Whoops. Sorry. Thanks.

The boxcars, and the traction engine are still there as of a couple of weeks ago, verified by my MK I eyeball. It is my understanding that they belong to the heir of the original owner of the yard, not Cycle Systems (which was recently bought out). The great loss from that yard was an N&W combine in very solid condition which was scrapped about a year before the locomotives made it out....

Photo from Smokstak page (boxcars):

Here are some views of the boxcars that I took back in 2004, now you may say oh those are older pictures we want current views...but we have already acknowledged that they are still there, my purpose it to show the condition they were in in 2004 with everyone knowing that they didn't get any better with time! The guys in Roanoke VA have been looking at these for years and it's just come down to setting priorities when it comes to restorations. While we would love to haul out everyone of these and one by one restore them in Roanoke...then what? Have them set out side and have them rot again. Presently there isn't appropriate protected display/storage to consider the time and expense it would take to restore these. Not to mention the Chapter recently restored a sister boxcar that came from this same group and it will be saved and soon to be displayed in the Virginia Museum of Transportation. While we could not save them all focusing on what could be saved and also focusing on what we already have is key right now. This must be thought of before venturing and collecting duplicates and or building a train a vulnerable wooden cars with out plans to protect there future! I'm speaking as a simple preservationist/volunteer and not as a spokesperson of any of the groups in Roanoke.

Diverging off topic a bit... you know what I would like to be able to do. Connect that cars' air brake system to an air supply, pressurize it and see if the brake valve would still operate any at all.

What made me think of that is I can see the retainer valve still at the ready up top by the brake wheel.

Just to see how it's held up over the years...

^Thanks for the pics!

These are interesting cars with steel underframes, complete but needing total overhaul if anyone were to restore one. They show an interesting transition in design, and I do not recall seeing door bottom stays, like the ones shown, on any car in preservation. The last photo shows a double-door car, so would this have been used in transport of early automobiles? Perhaps the Ford Museum/Greenfield Village would like to have one loaded with Model T's if it were so.