car 57 fabulous discovery

car57 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:18 pm

Hi to all
Well today we had breakfast in the car cooked on our stove to make things more comfortable in the car, we also made a wonderful discovery on the outside. We are concentrating now on the fire damaged west end as this takes a real beating from the wind, low and beholsd we find gold leaf either side of the doorway underneath the gold lining is more gold lining until we uncover some beautiful scroll work, unseen since at least 1899. We also fitted the original windows we found back in their as found positions.
One of those really good days
See the pictures at
http://mikepannell254.fotopic.net/c1599811_193.html

One question.. do any records exist for the Gilbert car company of Troy NY ?

Cheers

Mike

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

That's just plain cool!

Thank you for keeping us updated.

Was this car built by Gilbert?

Rob

car57 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:42 am

Hi
No this is a Pullman product but the new 1866 car weve found here is an unknown builder but new to Wagners, so could be a Gilbert car.

Mike

Ted Miles · **Posted:** Sat Jan 16, 2010 2:31 pm

Folks,

We have a pair of 1887 Gilbert Car Company built New York elevated cars at the Western Railway Museum. I ask around and see if anyone has heard of any of their paper surviving.

The Mid-Continent railroad Museum has a great historical write up and archive of wooden car builders on their web site. You can find some information there about Gilbert. I do not think that they lasted very long.

The Shoreline Trolley Museum has another elevated car which is also from that builder.

Ted Miles

Bob Hall · **Joined:** Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:37 am **Posts:** 152

Great find, Mike. I haven't been that lucky with our car, but we did find on the underneath of the end platform canopy, examples of the original Deep Purple Brown paint. Being where it was meant there was no sun-induced fade, so we have a really good match.
I'm interested to see your end door is rectangular, whereas ours has a curved top. Is that normal for American-built Pullmans?
Cheers, Bob

car57 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:00 pm

Bob, Which car are you restoring? The curved door was an earlier design, most of the manufacturers went over to square doors and frames by the mid/late 1880's at least uf you consult photos it appears that way.

Mike

Bob Hall · **Joined:** Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:37 am **Posts:** 152

Mike,
1901-vintage Australian built, but based on cars imported from Pullman in 1891.
Those cars definitely had the curved tops, as we scavenged one from a derelict American-built car a few years ago (and it fitted perfectly!)
Pics can be seen at bobhall998.fotopic.net
Cheers, Bob