NP 393, Spokane Club, round end observation car in Toppenish

dwshearer · **Posted:** Tue Nov 26, 2019 5:02 am

Work on 393 continues. All furniture had been reupholstered sometime in the 1970s and needs restoration. The problem is finding the correct fabrics to match the original Loewy designed interior. We have a couple of tiny swatches of the original material from the Rainier Club (given by the Lake Superior Museum who also plans to recover its furniture in future), but only partially know where each fabric was used. We have no information on the carpeting.

Color photos would be very helpful in clarifying the situation. To date our search has been unsuccessful. Does anyone know the existence of any such photos?

Doug Shearer

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 26, 2019 5:18 pm

I had to look this up as I wasn't familiar with it:
https://nprymuseum.org/spokane-club-passenger-car/
Man, I really need to get across the Cascades to go check this out someday...

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 925

If you go down about halfway on this list there is an interior shot of NP 390 (and an exterior shot of your car). Black and white, but it shows the design:
http://www.nprha.org/Lists/Walt_Ainswor ... Items.aspx

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Thu Nov 28, 2019 7:50 pm

Laid up in Derby, Maine.

dwshearer · **Posted:** Mon Dec 02, 2019 4:15 am

Attachment:

Amtrak 8509 banquette glass partitions December 2018.jpg [ 243.83 KiB | Viewed 255 times ]

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File comment: NP advertisement showing glass partitions separating the "banquette" tables where family is sitting

Steward with banquette behind glass partition.jpg [ 278.02 KiB | Viewed 255 times ]

The picture taken in Derby, Maine is exactly as we found the car when we went to Maine to do the prep work for it's move to Toppenish.

The referenced NPRHA photo that is labeled "NP 390" is an interior photo of one of the 5 Budd diners (NP 459-463) that the Northern Pacific purchased in 1958. The giveaway is the glass partitions separating the 2 tables ("banquettes") on each end of the dining sections. The attached photos show this well in a photo I took in Amtrak 8509 (was NP 460) in December 2018 as well as in an NP advertising photo taken shortly after it was built.

Amtrak 8509 should be arriving in Toppenish sometime over the next couple of months pending weather for doing the required prep for movement.

We are still hoping for some interior photos of the Spokane Club or any of the other 4 cars taken after they were redesigned by Raymond Loewy in 1954. The Rainier Club was in this design while at the Lake Superior Museum in Duluth and interior photos almost certainly exist.

Doug Shearer

NP 393, Spokane Club, round end observation car in Toppenish

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