PRR Keystone Coaches on the Move

tomgears · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:38 am

I saw this one railpictures.net.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 50&nseq=81

Does anyone know the story on these coaches?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:53 am

Discussion at TrainOrders.com: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... ?4,2169066

ctjacks · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:56 am

These cars are from PRR's Keystone experimental train, which - unlike the other experimental trains of the period - ran for quite a long time, into the PC era. These two - as far as I know - were until recently used on the Coe Rail dinner train in Michigan, which of late has either shut down or moved to Florida, depending on who you speak to. The insides are dinner-train style with tables and chairs.

The rest of the PRR Keystone train was purchased by Detroit's SEMPTA, then sold off to a private owner in Iowa, and until a while ago existed in very decrepit condition - I am not sure if they are around any more.

Chris.

j32885 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:41 pm

All of the Michigan Airline Railroad (Coe Rail) equipment is up for sale. Most of it can be view at the Ozark Mountain Railcar website.

GSpro · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:52 pm

Mitch Goldman posted a reply to that picture... I'll quote what he said about these cars.

"What a catch - I didn't realize there museum pieces were still around. The Keystone cars were built by the Budd Company in Philadelphia, PA in 1956. They had lowered floors (for a lower center of gravity) and were 60% lighter then regular coaches which allowed them to save on fuel cost and take the notorious curves of the Northeast Corridor much faster with greater comfort. For the best of American technology, all you have to do is look back 50 years. If there were a few more they could've gone to WI or WA instead of the Spanish Talgo sets.."

That was posted by Mitch yesterday.

trolleyira · **Joined:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:22 pm **Posts:** 219

Members of the Metropolitan Philadelphia Railway Association (MPRA) acted as doescents on the inaugral press run of the Keystone pulled by a GG-1
I was a car guide on that trip and even shot some 8mm movies from on board. Unfortunately, it was my only experiment with Fiugichromre and everything has turned red.
I fondly remember describing the cars as we sped along.

Ira Schreiber
Aurora, CO

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:30 pm

j32885 wrote:

All of the Michigan Airline Railroad (Coe Rail) equipment is up for sale. Most of it can be view at the Ozark Mountain Railcar website.

This information contradicts this information posted by "poultrycar" at TrainOrders:

Quote:

These cars are part of the seven car fleet, plus the power/kitchen car that was purchased by Jack Haley about 1983. They were shipped on their own wheels to Waterloo, Iowa after surviving a derailment by being too far up front in a long freight train. While in Waterloo they were hit by vandals that badly damaged two of the cars by fire. They were then all sent to Charles City and were kept at the Charles City Western shops, also purchased by Haley. They were rebuilt there into a nice dinner train and two new gen sets were mounted in the power car.

These were never operated as a dinner train in Iowa, but the entire unit was sold to the Michigan firm mentioned by a prior poster.

The four remaining cars, including the two fire damaged cars, sat on the old Oliver interchange in seclusion for many years. A few parts, mostly doors, went into the Silver Solarium 1994-1995 during a complete rebuilding (second time) of the Silver Solarium, also in the Charles City Western shop.

Those four remaining cars were finally scrapped in place in 2003. Two of them were in a salvageable condition, but no buyer could be found. By that time they were owned by Fred Tanner, who picked up the pieces of the Haley empire, including a "few" debts.

Does anyone have a link to the Ozark listing or photos/other documentation of the scrapping?

davew833 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:39 pm

The cars are listed as 'sold' on the Ozark site and the photos and other details have been pulled.

eze240 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 319

I haven't heard who the two coaches went to, but the power car is still on the ozark site with a price of $80K,(look under "misc cars") as well, that dinner train set included two F units- 416 and 725, an ACL coach #210 used as a lounge/table car and a kitchen car. All of them are still listed on the site.....I wonder what kind of shape they are in....

j32885 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:37 am

I believe most of the ex-Coe Rail equipment is in good to average. The Michigan Star Clipper made it's last run on New Year's Eve 2009.

ctjacks · **Posted:** Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:49 am

Replying to ADM's post above: Coe Rail only had two of the Keystone cars. The rest of their dinner train was a grab bag from other railroads. I think it is correct that the rest of the Keystone cars were scrapped in Iowa, as they had been completely stripped and vandalized over the past 35 years.

The owner in Iowa evidently had lots of grandiose plans, including daily Chicago-Iowa service with the Keystone cars, that obviously never happened.

Chris.

j32885 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:11 pm

I posted this over at the Railfan.com Board:

http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic. ... 59#p137659

The Michigan Airline Railroad (Coe Rail) had recently cease their railroad operation this year. They have left Michigan for Florida. Most of their remaining equipment is up for sale and is still sitting at Walled Lake. Ozark Mountain Railcar Inc. is handling their equipment now.

The only other pieces I know that were sold off was PH&D #52 to Knoxville Locomotive Works, and DL&W coaches #4315-4317 were sold shorty afterwords. The remaining pieces of equipment can been seen at following websites.

The Weblinks:

Railmark Holding's Inc.
http://www.railmark.com/Railmark_News_20091113.pdf
http://www.railmark.com/Railmark_News_20100407.pdf

Railroad Entertainment USA
http://www.rail-road.com/

PRR Keystone Coaches on the Move
viewtop ... =1&t=29227

Michigan Star Clipper Dinner Train Consist

Erie Lackawanna (B&LE) #725
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/ble_f7_725.htm

Erie Lackawanna (C&NW) #716
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/emdf7a416.htm

Kitchen Car #1235
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/kitcar1235.htm

Santa Fe #1558
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/tab ... r_1558.htm

Atlantic Coast Line #210
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/acl ... ar_210.htm

Kitchen Car #8032
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/kit ... r_8022.htm

Santa Fe "Vista Cavern"
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/vista_cavern.htm

PRR "Keystone" Power Car #9600
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/prr ... r_9600.htm

Port Huron & Detroit Caboose (Bay Window) #99
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/crew_caboose.htm

Walled Lake Scenic Consist:

Grand Trunk Western #1512
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/gtw_sw1200_1512.htm

Grand Trunk Western Excursion Baggage Car
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/exc ... agecar.htm

Milwaukee Road Tap Lounge #165
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/mlw_tap_lounge.htm

Delaware Lackawanna & Western #4308
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/dlw_4308.htm

Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton Caboose (ArtTrain) #141
http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/dti_caboose.htm

Their plans have been finalized, the remaining piece of GTW's Michigan Airline Railroad route which went from Richmond-Pontiac-Jackson will be no more. The remaining porton which went Wixom-West Bloomfield is to become a "Rail To Trail".

R.I.P. Coe Rail (1984-2010)

Warren · **Posted:** Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:39 pm

I remember riding on these in 1950 something behind a GG-1 from Philly to New York with my Pop on a trip to a hobby shop on 42nd (??) Street.

daylight4449 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 28, 2012 2:36 pm

Looks like the two keystones, now internally gutted, are for sale for $20,000 each on Sterling Rail
http://www.sterlingrail.com/classifieds ... hp?id=4578

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:13 pm

They were pulled out of Coe Rail/MAL recently. The line is now empty and being torn up.
I knew Larry Coe personally back-when, and I'm sure it breaks his heart as much as mine.
http://railroadfan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24256

PRR Keystone Coaches on the Move

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