Anybody know of the disposition of the old Salt Lake and Garfield cars that were stored in Utah for years?

dave

Dave,

Have a look at this database.

http://www.bera.org/pnaerc.html

Wesley

The Heber Valley Railroad has two Salt Lake, Garfield & Western cars. Boxcar No. 100 (one of only two owned by the "Saltair" route) was "rescued" in 1997 from the "Old Las Vegas" theme park, as that park was being demolished. The car received cosmetic repairs and was repainted into its original paint scheme as part of an Eagle Scout project. It is used for parts storage and is occasionally run in photo freight trains.

One of the open-air trailers (number unknown) came to the Heber Valley Railroad (in very rough shape) from the former "Heber Creeper" property in 1998 and was placed on display near the depot, next to our Bamberger Electric car. It was taken off display in 2005 (replaced by Columbia Steel 0-6-0 #300) and is currently out in the back lot. We would gladly donate it to anyone who could provide or find a good home for it.

A second open-air trailer (formerly at the "Heber Creeper") was moved to California in the early 1990s.

At least two other open-air trailers were donated to the Ogden Union Station Museum in the late 1990s. I believe they had been stored on the Saltair, under ownership of the Promontory Chapter, NRHS.

Craig Lacey
Executive Director
Heber Valley Railroad

Dave,

Which Salt Lake Garfield & Western cars are you referring to? The two interurban cars near the new Saltair?

There are also four surviving SLG&W open air cars, SLG&W boxcar 100 and, more recently, several diesels, two passenger cars and two cabooses that have been owned by the SLG&W.

I have been working on a SLG&W roster. It will be a few days before I can post it, the next couple of days will leave little free time, but I will post a roster of surviving SLG&W locomotives and rolling stock including pieces still on the property.

Stan

Thanks guys - I was trying to track down the 501 and 502 as it turns out.

Privately owned and stored somewhere near SLC? Salt flats? Cryptic to me but might make sense to somebody local.

If anybody can PM me contact oinformation for the owner I'd be grateful.

dave

Dave,

As a resident of Salt Lake City, first became aware of #501 and #502 in about 1982 when they were stored together behind some industrial buildings west of the SLC airport. At that time, they were fairly intact and original, with windows, doors, interior furnishings, etc. While there were signs of transients living in them at the time, they were in fairly good condition. I seem to recall that they still had the original paint and lettering at that time. Some other equipment belonging to the Promontory Chapter NRHS was stored with them as well, so perhaps they were owned by the NRHS at the time.

A few years later, they were moved further west to the shores of the Great Salt Lake, one near the old SLG&W power house, and one in the parking lot of the Saltair "resort" near two other heavyweight passenger cars. They are both little more than shells on trucks now- no longer in original colors, and completely stripped and heavily vandalized. I'm not sure who owns them now, but perhaps they belong to whoever owns the Saltair resort since they are on the property.

It's too bad they were not preserved sooner when there was more to preserve!

Folks,

There are two SL,G& W cars at the Western Railway Museum, rio Vista Junction California.

The open car was brought down in the early 1990s and we do not know a number as the paint was sand blasted. Maybe 506?

More recently we got the D-2 from the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, CA. she is a GE built 44 ton switcher that can MU with our Sacramento Northern 44 tonner.

I am glad to hear of interest in this one time Interurban and now Diesel powered short line.

At Rio Vista we also have cars from the Salt Lake and Utah and the Bamberger Railroads, sadly there are no traction museums in Utah.

Ted Miles

Although I live only a few minutes from the present(?) location of the 501 and 502 I haven't visited them in quite some time. I will be going by there tomorrow, Tuesday, so I will try to stop and have a look.

The 501 and 502 were always owned by the SLG&W until sold to the Saltair interests. Some of the other cars on the SLG&W property were/are owned by the Promontory Chapter, NRHS, others by the SLG&W and there have been a few guests.

The two heavyweight Pullmans near the new Saltair were owned by the Promontory Chapter, NRHS, at one time. They went through a few owners and a runaway near Park City before ending up at the new Saltair.

A small technical matter, the former SLG&W 44 ton switcher is D.S. 2. It also has had some interesting adventures before going to the Western Railway Museum.

More later when I have a chance to post the SLG&W roster.

Stan

I didn't have time to go by the new Saltair today. It was Open Track Day at Miller Motorsports Park today and the sessions ran later than I had realized they would. But I had fun, learned a lot and went fast without any possibility of getting a traffic ticket.

I will be making a special trip to the new Saltair tomorrow or Thursday just to check on the cars. I will let you know what I find.

Stan

Several years ago, I looked over the cars at Saltair. The Pullman cars were then (or had been) set up as a boutique. The track was uneven below them due to the softness of the soil, ground heaves, etc.

It was not pleasant.

I made the special trip to the new Saltair today, Wednesday October 11, 2006, to check on the railroad cars there. When I arrived a large tracked machine with a large boom-mounted hydraulic nipper had just finished the day’s work of breaking up the SLG&W McGuire-Cummings car and one of the Pullmans. If they had been living beings the bodies would have been still warm.

A few minutes earlier, when I was going north on Saltair Drive, I saw a pickup truck hauling a trailer with two railroad wheelsets on it. Now I know the wheelsets were from the scrapped Pullman.

At this point I am fairly sure that the former McGuire-Cummings SLG&W car which was at the new Saltair and is now broken bits was the 501, so Salt Lake, Garfield & Western Number 501 met it’s demise October 10-11, 2006, eighty-eight years after it’s creation.

I did get one significant memento from the 501. I picked up a McGuire-Cummings journal box cover.

Several years ago there was a gift shop housed in the two Pullman cars. About fifteen years ago it was doing about a million dollars a year gross sales. Recently room became available inside the Saltair building so there was no more use for the Pullmans, they were left to rot. I am not sure what the 501 was used for, my guess is decoration.

Not all is lost. Yet. The other Pullman is slated to be scrapped soon but is still being used for storage. As soon as it is emptied, which could be in just a few days, the scrapping process will begin. SLG&W 502 is still next to an old SLG&W sub-station building about two miles east of the new Saltair location. I believe the property is still owned by the Saltair interests. The 502 is in very sad shape with some fire damage on the south end but there is enough remaining of the north end for patterns. Either or both of these could be saved by an interested organization, but contacts will have to be made very quickly. Seriously interested parties PM me for the owners phone numbers.

Stan

Gets mysteriouser. I spoke with a man who talked to the owners on the phone today. He said the owners told him they had been trying to find homes for the cars for a year now, yet nobody on this list had anything to say about it. Gotta wonder......who could they have been talking to?

I had a tank car scrapped out from under me because a business that didn't own it wanted it gone from property adjacent to theirs in a small city with a visible railroad museum with a listing in the phone book.

Low profiles make little sense. Let's pester people who have this stuff on a regular basis and let them know we are here.

dave

After checking some older photographs there is no doubt it was SLG&W 501 that was scrapped October 10-11, 2006.

Unfortunately, it was in better condition than 502 whose remains are still about two miles east of the new Saltair.

We should learn from this and be more vigilant. I for one hadn’t visited these cars for at least seven years even though I often drove by the site.

As Dave notes, it would be good to politely but aggressively contact owners of historic, privately owned railroad equipment in your area to be sure they have some contacts to use when they decide to part with the equipment. I can think of five businesses or organizations locally that the new Saltair owners could have contacted and I am sure there are more.

We lost two of the four cars, but the other two are possibly being saved.

Overall, in the last few years the Salt Lake City area has done reasonably well preserving railroad rolling stock. Several pieces that otherwise would have been scrapped have ended up at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah and on the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City, Utah.

Stan

Today, Friday October 13 (Friday the thirteenth), I stopped by the new Saltair and happened to talk with the owner. He has owned the property for about one year now.

We talked a bit while the scrapper was loading the last bits of the Pullman and SLG&W 501.

The two cars were scrapped simply because they were in very poor condition -- leaking roofs, serious rusting -- and had become very serious liability concerns. People were breaking in and vandalizing them no matter how well they appeared to be secured. Very bluntly, he is correct. They had to go. He really did try to find a new owner or owners. He did a good job of networking. Unfortunately for rail preservationists, he was using the wrong network.

The good news is that he is in no rush to get rid of the other Pullman, which is in relatively good condition. I believe this is the one that still has an original Pullman section still intact. The other good news is that there is an interested party checking the car out tomorrow, Saturday. If that doesn’t work out there is still time to find a new owner for the car.

He does not own the property where the SLG&W 502 sits, it is still owned by the prior new Saltair owners.

Stan

September 1950, nearly two years before I opened my eyes on the world in a hospital to the northeast of this location--

http://i19.ebayimg.com/02/i/08/9f/65/08_1_b.JPG

usual disclaimer--I have no interest in this auction (financial or otherwise)

sc 'doc' lewis