The Northeast Narrow Gauge Railroad Society, Inc has possession of the 1867 D&H Canal Company coach #3 in Pennsylvania. It was close to a trip to the local landfill until two of our members saved it!
This car is the oldest narrow-gauge coach in the U.S and depending on who you talk to, its either the third or fifth oldest in the world! In any case, this car is near 100% original. We've had the wood frame inspected and it's been found to be in very good, usable condition. The interior has some water damage but most of it is good and restorable including the original window frames.
We have secured an indoor shop for preservation and restoration work. Currently we are stabilizing the car for movement to the new shop which is within a hour of the car's current location.
We need help getting this car back to new! Please consider a donation in any amount to the restoration & preservation of this car.
Please donate here: https://gofund.me/f9ebdcc1

Follow us on Facebook for project updates, https://www.facebook.com/narrowgaugehistory/

We are also looking for volunteers to help with this project in NE Pennsylvania. Reach out to us here, or via messenger on FB.

The Northeast Narrow Gauge Railroad Society, Inc is a 501c3 nonprofit so your donation should be tax deductible. Consult your tax professional for details.

What a fantastic find! I wish you every success with this great bit of history!.........mld

One of the strangest local operations was the Sheffield & Tionesta (Nebraska, PA to Sheffield PA, built 1904, abandoned 1942). But it was standard gauge.

They did passenger operations on the line with the most amazing dogs breakfast of stuff, including an ex-C&NW 4-4-0 and what LOOKS LIKE those D&H gravity coaches. See photo link below:

http://www.randgust.com/S&T4.jpg

The unique trucks and the steps are dead giveaways for those cars, that may either be your coaches or for all I know your coach or darn awful close. The cars were replace later (about 1915) with a conventional ex-PRR combine and coach, but these cars are shown in the book "Sheffield & Tionesta" (Casler, 1976) minus trucks and carbody intact up close to WWII. What happened after that?

The enlargement of this is up on my office wall, it was taken at Kellettville, PA sometime around 1908, my guess. The fact that these kind of cars were sold secondhand and operated in passenger service with those trucks, steps, and tiny size still astounds me, right out of the Civil War era.

There's another one of these gravity coaches preserved:
https://www.waynehistorypa.com/applicat ... lCoach.jpg

More detailed shots of that restored car, including the surprisingly ornate interior. I've confirmed this is the kind of car on the S&T, I can't confirm that yours is the same series or at least the design, but I'm guessing it is.
https://frank-dutton.blogspot.com/2015/08/

There's another nice shot here and supposedly a photo book of the cars. I love this shot because it again proves how SMALL they were, particularly in width, when shown on standard gauge track and with a person standing there. And that caption confirms that the cars were scattered to the wind when the line closed in 1899.
https://bridge-line.org/audiovideos
"DIGITAL BOOK (ON CD):
GRAVITY CARS – 100 YEARS LATER
BY ROBERT STAHR"

Great Information, thanks for sharing! Please share our project with others.

Not to contribute to thread drift but thought this thread interesting and have a comparison possibly. Mid Continents C&NW #1099. The web page gives a probable original owner and build date which is newer than this one. But it is old and the design may be similar? I thought this car was an exceptional find though in horrible condition after being a "chicken coup" on a farm for most of its non railroad life. It is now in the car shop and has had much stabilization work done to it though the exterior not so much. The size of the cars is bizarre when compared to standard gauge passenger cars. Hope some one finds this interesting. Both these cars are ancient and rare in my book. Regards, John.

https://www.midcontinent.org/equipment- ... tern-1099/

"Seventeen of them have been photographed inside and out by the author along with three from the PA Coal Company."

So there are 20 of these surviving, at least to some extent, 100 years later? That's a pretty surprising number of them. Granted, being a chicken coop isn't exactly preservation, but the fact they exist at all is impressive.

Window count on my cars is more than this ( 8 windows per side); I'll concede this has to be an older car, but the build appearance and technique appears identical.

Other than the size, the tiny wheels, and the rather absurd steps, what's surprised me the most is the level of workmanship on the interior of that museum car. I've never seen any photos of the interiors of the S&T cars, but for secondhand cars on a backwoods logger, that was still a high finish level. These were an evolutionary step not far removed from stagecoach bodies and civil war era cars.


Great shot here, and those are the 8-window cars with the weird steps.
https://www.facebook.com/CarbondaleHist ... 7sisg&_rdr

Look at the cars with a man beside. He's eye level with the bottom of the window sills.

And you can see how primitive - look at the shop switchers!!!

And it's not narrow gauge, the carbodies for the coal cars are on the inside of the wheels...wow.

Only seven D&H Gravity RR cars remain today.

The D&H Gravity RR was built as 4'-3"

Wow, had no idea.

Which now raises the question of how they were standard-gauged for the S&T. They certainly had retained what looks like those same tiny-wheel trucks. Were any others sold secondhand to standard gauge railroads or was S&T unique?