For those of you who have Facebook, here is Marc Manfredi's page, the fellow who is working with this car.

The pix are here, too.

https://www.facebook.com/marc.manfredi.16

Didn't JR say in the initial fb post that this way bull dozed back in 2000?

Later!
Mr. Ed

Well that was a waste of time then.

No, I believe he was talking about a similar situation, in which they tried to save a carbody but failed. This carbody exists and was found recently

I'm inclined to think it is a streetcar because it has a wagon wheel rub rail. I'm not much of railroad passenger car expert, but I wouldn't think railroad equipment would need to protect the paint from wagon wheels.

Whoever posted the link to the Trenton Car (Hicks?) is spot on by my observation.

http://newdavesrailpix.com/odds/nj/htm/trt01.htm

Sorry for any confusion on my reference to a similar NJ effort in 2000. I have sent our lessons learned from that effort off one of the guys who seems to be involved. Key issue was ownership and when that transfers. In 2000, title did not transfer early enough, which allowed the owner to remove the jewels of the car, essentially vandalize it, once it was totally uncovered and we realized what it was. It was going to be a very expensive move as the salt air and ocean waters did the iron rods, bolts, nails, and screws no favors. It was held together with gravity. Based on the issues with the owner, his timeline, and the expenses, we walked away from it. It was then bull dozed.

Having looked at the photos of the final demolition in 2000, that’s when we realized how much good solid wood was still in the car, especially the heavier timbers. The salt air and water that ate the iron, preserved the wood. Hindsight is that we should have done the demolition ourselves and harvested the timbers.

Again, lots of lessons learned. We applied much of this to the Hainesport, NJ caboose find in 2017. The body was not salvageable, but we harvested as much as we could plus the entire rolling frame so that the car could be recreated which is underway today using a lot of the “fabric” from the original body.

So, early ownership and even if you can not save the whole care, save what you can. Have that Plan B in your back pocket.

J.R.

You are correct. I misread his post.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Made the news now:

https://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/201 ... train.html

Just thinking that this could make a good "cut away" exhibit for a museum, similar to Reading birney #506 in Scranton.

A conclusion?

http://newjersey.news12.com/story/39462 ... en-in-home

Iowa?

It may be going to a company in Iowa called Gomaco that makes paving machines for highways and also restores trolleys as a side business, a lot of heritage trolleys came from them:

http://www.gomacotrolley.com/index.html

I wonder about the statement "the wheels alone are $100,000", even wheels and axles shouldn't be that much. Do they mean both trucks, including wheels etc.?

Good evening folks,

I see the media has "jumped the gun" with regards to getting the word out about Trenton Traction #288.

Before the speculation turns wild and crazy, a few brief news items are presented for the readers here.

Yes, the trolley carbody is expected to go to Gomaco in Iowa.

The reason the carbody is going to Gomaco is quite simple. When the trolley was enclosed in the dwelling, a number of significant modifications were made to the carbody which removed the "entry/exit/control ends" from the frame up (save for one set of doors which somehow remained intact). In addition, two other structural components need to be repaired as well.

These repairs require a shop with sufficient expertise to rebuild the ends, and to make appropriate repairs where necessary. Gomaco has that expertise. They also have the ability to take the trolley inside and keep it undercover immediately. Their current workload is such that #288 will be able to be moved fairly close to the top of priority list.
By using an outside contractor, once the work is fully funded, the repairs will happen fairly quickly thereafter.

[Note: If the trolley had been moved to the URHS facility in Boonton, it would have to wait outside (and in line) while others projects currently underway are completed.]

I ask that everyone please give the folks at Liberty Historic Railway a couple of more days to finish getting their press releases completed. I do know that a lot of work has already been completed with respect to acquiring and extracting the car in a quick and appropriate manner.

It is my understanding that once a full restoration action plan is finalized, LHR will be announcing its plans regarding the trolley.

I'll close with this one point. I was truly impressed with the speed that Liberty Historic Railway was able to move at in order to complete this "save". Many well known parties came together to steer this car towards a well funded group with the resources to be pull this off, all on really short notice.

Kudos to everyone at Liberty Historic Railway that worked so hard to make this happen.

No doubt a new topic line will be posted at some point to keep track of this effort, but wanted to drop a quick update that the Trenton car was moved successfully yesterday from the site to a location where it can be safely stored pending restoration. Ed Rizzo and I teamed up to manage the move effort. For those on facebook, updates can be found at the "Trenton Transit Co. #288." Many thanks to the LHRy volunteers and management for taking on the project, along with a several ex-members of the Pine Creek RR for bringing their can-do attitude to do the final prep work over the weekend in the rain/heavy mist.

A news report can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/melvin.may.71/ ... 944794776/

And I am including a few photos here. Amazing what a $1Million "rotator" can do in this day and age along with a landoll trailer.

Mud, snow, cold and eventually darkness made for an interesting day.

J.R.

Definitely have to preserve that octangular window :-) Good job. Glad to see it's being preserved.