I doubt it's anything that exciting... I believe it's one of the US Army Transportation Corps "knock down" boxcars built in the fifties for the future European conflict that never came. These were double truck cars, based on a flatcar with lightweight sides, ends, and roofs that were never used, except some were assembled and used on base railways here in the states. They have been discussed here before.

Just love the comments by local folks. When our place went under, one of the Philly news stations interviewed people at the Wawa next door. They all said the equipment was an eyesore. Talk about biased reporting! Same thing on this article.

Later!
Mr. Ed

After reading the article and watching the clip the reporting doesn't seem biased.

Trains Newswire says all of ITM rolling stock is transported, and only remaining items are privately owned, and two ITM cars remain that are, I guess, abandoned.

Has anyone else seen the post on the MILW group page about the city of Noblesville not honoring bills of sale/purchases dated after June 1, 2018?

If true, it doesn't sound good for those with cash hanging out there.

This is false. The city is putting a plan together - it should be more formalized in the next week or two. There is no "ticking clock" as the city has a lot of other projects it's working on. Meanwhile, Noblesville is engaged with the owners of equipment and they are committed to following through.

Roger that! I have no skin in this game but it caught my attention. The poster says he was told same by Noblesville's Mayor's office.

Hope everyone has their documentation in order.

There has been a lot of focus on the equipment side of things, but not on the other. What is the status of any of the shall we say, small stuff? Signals, spare parts, railroadania, stuff of that nature?

I appreciate everyone on the front lines giving us updates.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... =858139899
The only two cars still in orange ("likely scrap needs buyer") are the NYC heavyweight baggage car and the PRR covered hopper (though the hopper says "supposedly safe"). I am a bit surprised no one wants the NYC baggage car, the photos, while not detailed, don't show any major rust. It was apparently used as a display car so I would guess the interior is not terrible either.

The covered hopper certainly looked in good condition 6 years ago when I visited the ITM...



.

70000 -

I agree that number 257784 sure looks good. One thing that always bothered me about the car however, is that painted number. I was not sure that the Pennsy would have numbered the car quite like that. I found this photo on internet of a sister car in this same lettering scheme:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=176345

The road number on PRR 257742 looks more straight forward to me. I wonder if the person who did the number on the 257784 took a little bit of liberty with the number. Or was this the way the car was actually done by the PRR? Whatever, I sure hope that someone saves the car. She sure would look good on any museums roster of freight equipment.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum)

Things could be worse. At least they got all the letters right side up:

https://hickscarworks.blogspot.com/2013 ... vania.html

The number on 257784 doesn't look too bad to me. The typeface was called Calendar, if I recall correctly, and was instituted when the "shadow keystone" lettering scheme was adopted in the mid fifties. It only lasted a couple years and the PRR changed the numbers to a more traditional look. This page has some photos and art of both number sets:
https://www.protocraft.com/category.cfm ... egoryid=20

The 7's below the base line and the tall 8 appear to be correct. The problem is the 4 should be on the same baseline as the 25, rather than in line with the tails of the 7's, but the error may have been made by the PRR, not ITM.

Here's a question. If the railroad did it wrong, do you restore the piece with the error, or correct it?

That PRR hopper and a Gulf Oil tank car were the only presentable looking items of freight stock at the ITM during my 2012 visit there, so were the only ones I bothered photographing.

A bit of a contrast to the 7 freight cars + several cabooses in good condition I photographed at your Museum the previous day on that vacation !!

Dennis -

Thanks for the lesson on Pennsylvania 1950's lettering. Learn something new everyday! I'd vote to correct the error with the "4" numeral, but I would think I'd be in the minority if a vote were taken.

Les