The Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources (The SPCRR) has recently discovered the mortal remains of a early 1881 Carter SPC 10 ton flatcar in the Santa Cruz mountains. The car is half buried, on its back, apparently burned, but surprisingly complete. At a preliminary dig we recovered a stake pocket, and some brake parts. One truss rods was found, but not recovered The trucks have already been recovered, and are safe, nearby. Among the most amazing finds are the original delivery stencils on the 1881 Whitney wheels, and parts found marked SPC.

The car is in an area known to have been the site of an early lumber mill, but no one was aware of a railroad associated with the mill in question.

For those interested in California narrow gauge, this is one of the most significant finds of recent years. While many Carter 10-ton car bodies survive, until now, there were no known 10-ton trucks. We will be producing patterns from these trucks to produce new replacement trucks for at least 4 cars in the SPCRR collection at Ardenwood. This week we will be casting the first of our new, single plate 24" wheels which will be used in these trucks.

We have now set a date to try to recover the rest of the car. It is planned for Saturday May 5. We intend to both dig out the car body, and remove one journal box from the trucks (the trucks will remain with the property owner, but he is willing to loan us parts for research and to allow us to make patterns for new parts.) We will be allowed to remove all the carbody parts we recover.

I am coordinating the volunteer list. You can pass this message on, but understand that we will need to limit the number of participants to no more than 20. At this time there are about 5 spots still available. It will be a day of hard work, digging out the car, and a day of exploration and fun. Noted author Bruce MacGregor will be among the team.

For more information on the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources look at our web site at WWW.SPCRR.org

Thanks, Randy Hees

hees@ix.netcom.com

http://WWW.SPCRR.org
hees@ix.netcom.com