The photographer ran across this car in Coffee Creek, Montana:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter1828 ... 051423082/

Car apparently was assigned to MofW service as number X782 but may have originally been numbered 902. The car looks in decent shape, but not sure what the interior looks like. If is WAS put into MofW service, the coach seats could well have been removed. Anyone got any idea as to who might own the car and what the plans are for it? Anyone?

Les

I don't think you need to be signed in to Facebook to see this picture, which is an interior shot of GN 902.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 869&type=1

Paul Krueger
Seattle, WA

She's holding up pretty good, from the looks of it. I was inside the car during it's tenure on the White Sulphur Springs and Yellowstone Park Railroad (in Montana) after the end of operations in 1982. Back then the car was half filled with original walkover seats and the other half was made up of wood slat fixed double sided seats. At the time it still had the original GN water cooler and stove (both likely long gone).

Of the cars I could access at the time, the GN car was in the best shape. The mystery car was the NP Pullman (covered in the surviving Pullman thread) which was kept under lock and key.

I notice the car has been listed for sale by Sterling since the start of the year. Don't know the asking, as I've no money for such. Coffee Creek is on the old MILW Northern Montana mainline, and is operated as a shortline (Central Montana Railroad) between Geraldine and Spring Creek Junction and Spring Creek Junction to Moccasin (former GN).

It would be a neat car for somebody out there.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

Looks like the picture on Facebook is gone, but you can see the interior at the Sterling Rail site:

http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... hp?id=9745

Paul Krueger
Seattle, WA

I guess these discussions about other peoples' property bother me a bit. What if something that I owned, that maybe was not in a secure location, became a topic in a public internet board. I might feel it was an unwelcome invasion into my private affairs, and I might start to worry about the safety of my property after so many private details were ventilated all over the internet. The "for sale" ads do not list precise locations for a reason.
Just a friendly reminder to respect others and their property. If I was moderator I think this sort of thread would be a candidate for deletion.


(Edited to corrected typo).

GN Coach #902:

Here's an additional photo of GN #902 (ex-#782):

http://www.gn-npjointarchive.org/GNRHSNewby/GNRHS.Newby.Bk3img379.jpg (Cordell Newby photo) (click once to enlarge)

NP Coach #633:

The ex-NP car Mike mentions is NP coach #633, which was built in 1914 by Pullman as drawing room-café-parlor Ocean City, and was sold to NP in 1941 and converted to a coach.

The #633 is listed as line item #264 in the seventh post on page #12 of the Surviving Pullman Heavyweight Sleeping Cars thread: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30187&start=165

Sources:

1. Pictures located via Jerry LaBoda's photo links website: http://passcarphotos.info/

2. Information from Tom Madden's Pullman Project CCR database at: http://pullmanproject.com/Database.htm

I'd be one thing if someone had looked in the window of a warehouse, spotted this thing and snapped a picture of it to start a discussion (I keep waiting for someone to pull that stunt with those Baldwin Sharks up in Michigan or wherever) but the picture shows this car is out in the open and doesn't appear to be overly protected. It's like driving by Strasburg and snapping a picture of 475. Plus, all we're doing on here is discussion the history of the car, not making plans to steal or vandalize it.

Except Strasburg is open to the public, this car likely isn't otherwise the location probably would be known. A better example might be someone coming onto your drive way to snap a picture of the vintage car that you own.

OT warning

I agree with the concerns about private property, but in this case we are talking about a car located on a siding adjacent to a highway. You can't drive into Coffee Creek's east side and NOT see it. No trespassing, no snooping required.

It is a far cry from shooting a picture of this car and posting it's location than it is walking onto someone's private property (or flying a drone over it) to photograph something not visible from a public vantage point. Even at that, Google maps makes it pretty easy to find things on a private individual's "back 40."

Times are changing, and privacy debates will only rise... Drone photography of private property will continue to be a point of contention for quite awhile, especially given the reversal of court opinion last week.

Rob