This showed up on my Facebook feed, and it looks like something that would be of interest here.



Other comments revealed the location.

https://www.fws.gov/media/fish-rail-car ... atcheryjpg

Some people at the Facebook site where I saw this said the car might be of Boston & Maine heritage. Maybe someone here can confirm or correct that information.

My own comments on the car:

It looks great, but why is it outdoors like that? Why is it next to a tree like that? Neither feature, if you could call them that, bodes well for the car's preservation.

There is a Wisconsin Fish Commission car at the Mid Continent RR Museum as well....

https://www.midcontinent.org/equipment- ... mission-2/

I saw it when I visited the museum back in 2011 but my photo of the car was limited to the rather nice Coat of Arms on the car side!

Not a hatchery car, but similar, one of the 2 John G. Shedd Aquarium (Chicago, Illinois) cars named Nautilus is preserved at the Monticello Railway Museum in downstate Illinois.
https://www.frrandp.com/2019/06/the-forgotten-railways-of-chicago-shedd.html
The State of Pennsylvania also had fish hatchery cars.

Since NO ONE actually came right out and said it yet:

It's at the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery,
423 Hatchery Circle, Spearfish, South Dakota.

I've heard of this car before, but always assumed it was the "real McCoy." It certainly calls into question where they found a wooden, tie-rodded car to replicate the fish car from, if it indeed is a replica.

There is a standard gauge tourist railroad an hour to the south. They have a somewhat eclectic collection. If I had to hazard a guess it came from the Black Hills Central.

Have rode on and followed the restoration and research efforts on the Mid Continent #104 I found this all interesting. What a great car out in SD and agree it ought to be undercover if possible. The #104 at M-C even though wood a sided observation car is a boat anchor. In some years it was put into use as an extra coach when the passenger count warranted it. Every engineer I knew who pulled that car felt it was like adding multiple coaches on to the train. Guess with our small and worn out steam engines it added a new dimension in pulling. I rode the train at MC in 1963 as a little kid and always remembered the #104 with its brightly colored paint job and the interior always seemed "1st class". No doubt a child's memory can be misleading as much as a old mans. Regards, John.

Note that the description clearly defines the South Dakota car as a "replica".

It was funded by splitting $1 million of your Federal tax dollars that were controlled by the South Dakota DOT that could only by spent on railroad historic preservation. The "fish car" got half.

The other half went to the preservation of a "railroad hotel" in Plankinton. I tipped the folks in Plankinton that the money was available. There was no competition.