The Pacific Northwest Railway Museum has this Barney & Smith wood chair car built in 1881.

It is possible that it was in the Northern Pacific's first transcontinental passenger train. The museum's web site roster does not show pictures of the car.

Does anyone know what kind of shape it is in? It may be just a skeleton, for all I know.

Ted Miles

I recall that on a visit to the Museum back in 1976, I saw and was inside a car of this era. Since it had been in company work service the interior had been stripped. But at least some of the wood carving around the windows was still intact.

Information from a Northern Pacific passenger car roster compiled by Lorenz P. Schrenk in 1983 says that the car became an outfit car in 1926 and then bought by the Museum in 1958. As a passenger car it had several renumberings. 889 was a number assigned in 1901; before that it had four other numbers.

The car is in covered storage so is well protected. Most of the original interior carved paneling is intact. At some point it received a steel center sill. This is from the Northern Pacific May 13, 1958:

Ohio Falls Car Co. May 1881
Coach #30
#113 1882
#884 June 1886
Chair Car #884 Dec 12, 1894
#889 Sept 13, 1901
Outfit Car #X-46 Oct 5, 1926

This car was sold by the Northern Pacific to the Puget Sound Ry. Historical Assn. in May 1958. The PSRHA became the Northwest Railway Museum in 1999.

Folks,
Thanks for the information; it is a lot more
than what their web site says about the car.

Ted Miles

The information on the large artifacts section of their web site is scetchy at best. Did you contact thier archives?

I think that's it to the left.

The one in the middle is an interurban car body acquired from a party in Petaluma, Ca.

Yes, you are correct.

Daniel