Yesterday, the newly appointed Board of Directors of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad voted to approve the sale of the railroad's three business cars.

Several months ago, the General Manager of the railroad was terminated and the board was asked to resign, amid charges that the GM's spending was excessive and the board did nothing to keep it in check. The three railroad cars are, unfortunately, tangible proof of that extravagence, and it was felt they had to go.

The GM's father worked for the Wabash long ago and so it is no coincidence that there are three Wabash Pullman cars on the property.

Here is the railroad's bid specification:
http://media.nola.com/politics/other/Pr ... 0(03-07-11)[1].pdf

Notice that there is no information about the car's interior configurations. Car City of Peru(it was to be renamed) is 80 percent complete, but work was stopped when it started getting very expensive and the economy tanked(CofPeru hadn't been touched since it left the Wabash...still had friction bearings). Cars were rebuilt by Pete Messina here in New Orleans.They are going to advertise these in typical government type fashion in some publication and will probably not receive much response.

There is hope in New Orleans that somehow the cars can stay here. The railroad donated the use of the cars hundreds of times to charities to auction off as a fundraiser, etc, bringing in over $800,000 to date. They were a great way to give shippers a tour of the port. The railroad took travelers from one end of the French Quarter to the other, along the riverfront, and then up to the top of the Huey P Long bridge.

It was their use as non railroad related private party cars for the exclusive few that lead to news reports and their demise.

For those not up on their Wabash parlor car history:

There were six "identical cousins" built by Pullman. I believe all six still exist. Three are in New Orleans-

QUEEN ANNE(May 1925) plan 3957, became Wabash CITY OF PERU
QUEEN MARY(May 1925) plan 3957, to PRR
CLARA MORRIS(Jan 1927) plan 3957A, became Wabash CITY OF DECATUR
HELENA MODJESKA(Jan 1927) plan 3957A, became Wabash CITY OF LAFAYETTE
DIPLOMAT(Apr 1927) plan 3957B, became Wabash CITY OF DANVILLE
EMBASSY(Apr 1927) plan 3957B, became Wabash CITY OF WABASH

The Public Belt car LOUISIANA is formerly Keokuk Jct Ry CHIEF KEOKUK, Fr Steve Sandknop's SAN ESTEBAN, and Wabash CITY OF WABASH.

Car CITY OF NEW ORLEANS was formerly at the Fernandina Beach, FL CofC named FERNANDINA, was the New Georgia RR BLUE RIDGE, was the Clinchfield WHITE OAK, N&W business car LAFAYETTE, and Wabash CITY OF LAFAYETTE. Served on the DL&W in its early days(before 1945) under Pullman.

Greg,

Could you check the pdf link? I couldn't open it

Railroad shareholders revolt. New board cuts back on "extravagant" business cars. It is a story as timeless as railroading.

Paging Mr. Levin, know anyone that wants 1 of 3 private cars?

Try this:

http://tinyurl.com/2944dp6

Corruption in New Orleans? I cannot believe it!!!

Wondering how deep in your pocket you must dig?

The Public Belt has spent at least $3 million on these three cars....almost a million dollars on CITY OF PERU alone(and its only 80 percent finished). They stopped working on it as the cost escalated and the economy tanked.

In October the cars were appraised for $1.3 million for all three, so Public Belt will lose lots of invested money on the cars if sold. Also in October the folks from the new Greenbrier Express came down to inspect them. Maybe they will make a bid and keep the cars together.

To be such beautiful cars they sure didn't get photographed very much. If somebody has some nice photos of the cars (or even one of them) maybe we could convince them to post a few? Please?

T7

So has anyone gotten any pictures of the "City of Peru" today inside and out?