Folks,
This is an interesting one. Over on Railswap there is an ad for "1908 Pullman baggage car" which is up near Montpelier, VT. Its up near my brother so I have been in contact with the seller for some background, of which he has very little.

On the underside there are some letters: BF 5-24-67 GMRC

I'd assume that this is "Bellows Falls" and the date of some repair/service. GMRC would be the Green Mountain Railroad Corp which was tied to Steamtown up to 1967 or so.

The RyPN article by David Woodbury on the restoration of his B&M coach had some interesting tidbits which may, or may not, provide some clues on this car.

"....When the smoke cleared, just four cars remained. All wooden
passenger cars, these included a de-trucked B&M combination car that had
been used as an office, plus an ex-Rutland coach and combine/RPO and one B&M combine...."

"....The de-trucked car was soon burned and disposed of, leaving
three.....Eventually, one Rutland car found a good home at the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania....The other Rutland car went to a private owner, and it is as yet undetermined what's happened to it since. The B&M coach-turned-combine was purchased by David Woodbury."

To make a long story short I am guessing, and its only a guess, that the car for sale may be the Rutland car that went to a private owner who was unknown when the article was written. That's only a guess though but seems reasonable.

The owner is Matthew Stewart and he is more interested in finding a good home for the car. It has to move to make way for a new house he is building. Right now it is fixed up as a cabin but is in fairly good shape and cared for. He hopes to have it out by next summer. Seems complete including trucks. His email is olegruz@gmail.com

J.R. May
Wall, NJ
Porter 7197

The car in the picture is not one of those at Bellows Falls in 1991-2. There were two Rutland cars there. One a coach in reasonable (?) condition with 6 spoked wheel trucks and another combine RPO(?) in much worse shape. The better coach went to Strasburg and the worse one was scrapped in Vermont by Strasburg and the durable parts preserved by them as perhaps the basis for a replica. Someone from Stasburg can confirm what I think is true.

It was apparently moved to this site in the early 1990s from southern Vermont. Not sure if that helps or not.
J.R.

best as I can figure this is #134 which Jim Dufour lists as being sold by the GMRC in the 1980's. This is a RARE bird and is one of 4 RUT passenger cars in VT in private hands. There are also two wooden cars in NY state plus the cars on the GMRC, Steamtown and Strasburg. Only two, the GMRC cars are operable afaik.

Rob

The car in question is the ex-Rutland 134, a baggage car. After the end of passenger service, and the decline of parcel service, the 134 was renumbered as the X602, and used as a tool car.

Purchased by Monadnock Steamtown & Northern on 3-11-65, it was assigned to the Green Mountain Railroad Corp. as their X602. Used for storage in the N. Walpole, NH, yard, the car was deemed surplus after the acquisition of a number of 10' door PS-1's in the mid-1980's. Sold in the late 1980's or early '90's, the 134 has been used by the current owner since.

As for the "other" car at Riverside, the 270 Baggage/RPO/Combine was in work service from the 1930's on. This car was in rough shape when I saw it first hand in 1979. One neat feature was the mail slot for folks to drop their mail into the car when it was at a station stop. Originally built with 6 wheel trucks, this car was in service for awhile with one 6 wheel and one 4 wheel truck. The four wheel trucks came from retired milk cars. As stated before, the car was deemed too far gone to be restored, and was salvaged for it's running gear. It would be nice if Strasburg could rebuild the car to it's original design of Baggage/RPO/Combine. Then again, in my experience, most wooden cars are like grandpa's axe, three new handles and at least one new head, but it's still his axe!

Romi Romano

I think an appropriate, and nearby, destination for this car would be the Vermont Railway Museum,
http://cvrr.railfan.net/glorydays/pages/campus.html

or is the group located in White River Junction called the New England Transportation Institute and Museum?
http://www.newenglandtransportationmuseum.org/

Whatever it is, the main mission seems to be to hold an annual community festival:
http://www.glorydaysoftherailroad.org/

White River Junction seems like a great museum location, with two roundhouses in close proximity, historic equipment, station and Amtrak stop, scenery, possible tourist railroad route, all within an artist enclave outside of larger metro areas.

Today, in fact, is the last day of business in a remodeled freight depot near the historic station. They are looking for new owners, perhaps there is a possibility a museum could be established in relationship to this site?
http://www.elixirrestaurant.com/

The roundhouse west of there is located adjacent to an interstate interchange... another convenient spot.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=127+roundhouse+road,+white+river+junction,+vt&jsv=134d&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.844639,77.958984&ie=UTF8&ei=M9MNSd7kNpnKjAOS-rzuAQ&cd=1&cid=43653011,-72328941,3758900627606723654&li=lmd&z=14&t=m

Maybe all kinds of plans and accomplishments are already at hand at WRJ, but aside from the restoration of the 4-4-0 and Caboose, and its new canopy, I am not aware of any bigger plans becoming more a reality. Yet. I hope to hear more.
O. Anderson

The White River Junction museum(s) may be a good idea for the 134. However, there have been two cars available for quite some time that are more in line with WRJct. The GMRC has an ex-B&M baggage/horse car and a CV Pullman, that last I knew were up for free.

As for the 134, a home at Shelburne Museum or the Rutland group in Center Rutland are good possibilities. Either place is going to take some deep pockets, from what I heard it was quite an undertaking to move the 134 where it now rests.

Romi Romano

I can verify that the car is indeed the ex-Rutland 134. It was last used on the GMRC as the "B&B" car before being sold off-line. The fellow that moved it (lives just down the street from me) had a heck of a time getting it up into where it is now. I believe the Rut 134 was the last wood baggage car to make it from the rutland into Boston. There is a photo to verify that it was indeed there so it must have been at least used in express service.

As an aside, there won't be any museum or anything going into the former CV roundhouse at White River. It burned to the ground yesterday.