Mid-Continent Railway Museum has in it's collection a GN business car that has a "garage" for an automobile at one end. Is this a unique arrangement? Or were there more of these type of cars? Anyone have any information on this car or any other like it?
Thanks,
Allan

GN Business Car w/"garage"
ddg14@msn.com

I have met with the grandson of the man who used to "own" this car. He was the son of J.J. Hill, the "Empire Builder" himself. His mother told him stories that when she was a little girl, they would take the car to Glacier Park, where the car (Packard, I believe) would be unloaded, and her father used it as a camp for surveying the trails and features inside what would become Glacier National Park. If I remember the car was never a very posh "business car", it was more like a hunting camp.

Steve

> Mid-Continent Railway Museum has in it's
> collection a GN business car that has a
> "garage" for an automobile at one
> end. Is this a unique arrangement? Or were
> there more of these type of cars? Anyone
> have any information on this car or any
> other like it?
> Thanks,
> Allan


SZuidervee@aol.com

It would be interesting to see if there are photos, recollections, etc., of the use of this car, perhaps in the Hill archives. Would make a nice article and might help with donations for its restoration.



ryarger@rypn.org

Four additional photographs of this unique car, as well as the floorplan and elevations, are published in "Passenger Cars Vol. 1: Wooden Cars, Heavyweight Steel Cars", Hal Carstens, ed., Carstens Publications, 2001.

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt

Nevada Northern & Railroads of White Pine County
kalbran1@san.rr.com

> It would be interesting to see if there are
> photos, recollections, etc., of the use of
> this car, perhaps in the Hill archives.
> Would make a nice article and might help
> with donations for its restoration.
Hopefully mid-continent will be able to do something with this unique car sometime soon. It was originally built as a wood car, and then had steel plates applied to it's exterior at some point. Presently, the steel plates are just falling off of it exposing the rotted wood. All mid-continent has done thus far is to put a tarp over it to keep the rain out. With all the great restoration of wood cars that they have done up there, I'm sure they could do a great job of preserving this truly unique car. Hopefully they will find funds for this car's restoration soon.

ddg14@msn.com