I am trying to get the history of a car that seems to be an ex-P&R coach.

She was built in 1892 and looks to have been either a first class or parlor car, as the interior is covered with quarter-sawn oak inlayed with multiple woods, some of which are in an intricate ribbon pattern. The frame & bolsters are riveted plate iron/steel and it does not look to be an upgrade, as there is no sign of a removed inner pair of truss rods, only 2 on outside edge of floor and the truss rod over bolster bracket looks to be part of the bolster. The trucks are a 4 wheel composite (steel strapping & castings bolted around Wood timbers) The journal box mounting flange castings (horseshoe shaped casting that the journal box travels in) have P&R 2078 cast into them, which I assume is the casting # (same thing Osgood Bradley did on our NYNH&H Coach 4414) some of the other Journal box mounting flanges are marked Jackson & Se--rp Co., Wilmington Del. (-- = unreadable letters on the flange I photographed) who I assume is the builder. Probably her original draft gear was Link & Pin (or she was built during the transition to knuckle couplers) as she still has the mounting eyelets for the safety chains on either side of the coupler.

Currently the coach is sitting in Wallingford, Ct in front of the Yankee Silversmith Inn, in August 1970 she came north from the Black River & Western RR and wore the number 104. According to the owner she had come to the BR&W from the Belfast & Moosehead in the mid to early 60's but does not know the unit number.

While we are talking about the P&R, does anyone know what years they either owned, controlled or had trackage rights over the Central New England RR / Boston, Hartford & Erie RR, also during what years did they have trackage rights into Maine and what was the northern terminus?

Thanks,

Rich C.

Rich,

The pedestal castings would probably be Jackson & Sharp in Wilmington, Delaware. Bought by American Car & Foundry around 1904 or so.

Dave Crow

Rich,

Offhand, I don’t have the exact details on the Wallingford wood coach, but it is indeed a P&R car.

As for the P&R’s New England adventures, at the risk of over-simplification, the story is this. Starting in the very late 1880’s, the P&R began investing in a daisy chain of smaller railroads with the goal of creating a new trunk line from Pennsylvania to New England via the Poughkeepsie Bridge. In the spring of 1892, the P&R consolidated several of the lines into the newly formed “Philadelphia, Reading & New England RR” which included the line across the bridge itself and into Connecticut. Meanwhile, the P&R was also establishing alliances with the Boston & Maine and the New York & New England, which culminated in the P&R’s President Archibald McLeod being elected President of the B&M in the Fall of 1892. However, at no point did the P&R actually buy, lease, or otherwise acquire full control of the B&M, nor establish operating rights into Massachusetts or Maine since the two systems were never physically connected. The maximum extent of the P&R’s investment in the B&M was to buy a non-controlling block of stock at inflated prices, using money borrowed from a stockbroker. The whole scheme collapsed with the P&R’s bankruptcy in February 1893. The money pit PR&NE also went into bankruptcy, and eventually reorganized about 1899 as the Central New England RR with the P&R’s control wiped out.

Rick Bates