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 Post subject: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 6:50 am 

Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2013 4:42 pm
Posts: 192
I thought others would be interested in watching this to-date little-viewed video showing a beautifully restored 1910 McKeen Motor Car (check out those windows!)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtD3ByjssMw


It's an amazing restoration story (the tour guide summarizes the car's history about half-way through the film).


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 12:18 pm 

Joined: Tue May 08, 2007 4:59 pm
Posts: 148
Simply wonderful!


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 1:15 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:41 am
Posts: 3911
Location: Inwood, W.Va.
Thanks for the link. That restoration can only be described as amazing.

It must have an air whistle; no horn would sound like that.

In a great irony, this has to be one of the most "steam punky" pieces of railroad equipment around--and it isn't steam.


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:38 pm 

Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:03 pm
Posts: 45
Great video, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I'm overcome with a sense of what might have been. In 1909 John Hughes, Master Car Builder of the Oahu Railway and Land Company, took a trip to the mainland and while there visited both the Hall-Scott and McKeen works with an eye toward purchasing a narrow gauge version for the OR&L. In his letters to B.F. Dillingham, founder and GM of the OR&L, Hughes makes clear his preference to the McKeen car over the Hall-Scott due to its mechanics and ride quality. Negotiations must have advanced for the Hawaiian Star reported on 18 December 1909 "New Railroad Car Soon To Be Used Here". The article included a picture of a car which looks identical to the video. Nothing ever came of it but it's fun to wonder "what if".

Jeff Livingston


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:19 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:51 pm
Posts: 2041
Location: Southern California
Interesting about the Oahu and McKeen.

Based on drawings indexed at California State RR Museum Hall-Scott appears to have made proposals to the D&RG and the Nevada County Narrow Gauge for passenger motor cars. The D&RG proposal was for conversion of ng car(s); the NCNG for a complete car.

Hall-Scott appears to have designed a 30" gauge locomotive in 1917 for a dealer or manager in Honolulu.
Quote:
16 ton 30 inch gauge 100 HP locomotive designed for Hackfeld Company, Honolulu.
At this time, I do not now it this was built.

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Brian Norden


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 3:06 am 

Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:25 am
Posts: 1025
Yes, that is an air whistle--sounds a lot like the three-tone whistle on Hutchinson & Northern #1 at Orange Empire.

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Bob Davis
Southern California


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 3:37 pm 

Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:30 pm
Posts: 205
One would think that someone who could put together such a nice presentation could get the basic information correct. The car was restored by the restroation staff at the Nevada State Railroad Museum not the Virginia and Truckee Railway and not the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad museum although there were about four members of the Freinds who participated in the restoration project.

The whistle is the air whistle that the car was delivered with although it was removed early on as not being loud enough. It and other intesting hardware were placed in a tool box in the front end that was subsequently walled over. When Al Bernhard got the car in 1960 he uncovered the tool box and discovered the whistle. He gave NSRM the car in 1996 for restorarion. Along with the car he gave us the whistle and seed money.

Anyway its worth seeing.

Chris DeWitt


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:28 am 

Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:16 am
Posts: 767
Dear Mr. DeWitt

The question for me is are you and your staff getting use to your new work schedule since the start of the fiscal year? A co heart of yours says the return to the five day work week is really crimping into his personal project list but the return of the money is nice. Personally it amazes me the amount of work the Museum did on the McKeen car given the constraints. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Robby Peartree


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 Post subject: Re: 1910 McKeen Motor Car: Beautifully Restored
PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:29 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:21 pm
Posts: 105
I had the honor of seeing the McKeen Motor Car back in early September. The fellow giving the tour was great, and it was only weeks later that I realized it was Chris DeWitt. I wish that I had known who he was, as I'm told he is an expert on Russia iron, a subject of interest at the WW&F where I volunteer.


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