KCS 31 was one of four mail cars that were built by
Pullman in 1931 as KCS 60-63. In 1963, KCS sent these to Pullman to be
upgraded to the latest U.S. Post Office specifications and they were
renumbered 30-33. I think they also received disk brakes at that time.
The KCS was having disk brakes installed on many of its cars in the
1960's, as they felt this would reduce the wheel problems (such as
cracks) caused by heavy braking in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains.

In the 1970's the KCS donated car 31 to New Orleans public TV station
WYES for their fund-raising auction, and the person who bought the car
moved it down on the Louisiana Southern Ry to some land not far from the tracks at Caenarvon, LA near the St Bernard-Plaquemines parish line(lower Missississippi River below New Orleans).

For several years, someone lived in it. They replaced one of the baggage doors with a picture window, they had an attached metal awning carport, and little armatures on the corners held hanging flower baskets. The whole thing was sitting on a concrete pad.

The car was located outside of a levee protected flood area. The Corp of Engineers built a freshwater diversion project at this exact location, and I think the car had to move. In February 1991, it showed up back on the rails, on the west side of New Orleans on an Illinois Central industrial siding. In April it was on an IC-UP interchange track, and on May 12th it arrived in Boise. I think the local NRHS chapter was involved in the sale of this car, as they were getting into the car brokering business about this time as a way of making money.

Car had been purchased by the (then)president of Morrison-Knudsen, along with three UP cars, with plans to have the four cars rebuilt by his shop into a lavish private train for himself. When presented with the proposed costs, the project was put on hold. M-K went into bankruptcy and Mr President was fired. The train was, of course, never built.

The car remained stored on a siding M-K owned across the street from the plant. On
Aug 15, 1996, the car was sold to the Idaho Northern & Pacific (along
with the three UP cars) which was going to rebuild them for a dinner train.
INPR concluded the same thing M-K did about KCS 31: it was not suitable
due to its old construction and weak center sill; consequently, INPR resold
it to Yanke Machine Shop on June 29, 1999, a local fabricator and machine
shop just down the street from (now)Motive Power Industries.

The car was removed from its trucks adjacent to the same MPI siding(as above)
and placed on blocks where it remains today?(as of 2001) with no apparent work done to it. The trucks are still with the car, just sitting on the ground adjacent to
it.

Yanke machine shop didn't know anything about it in 2001. Several railfans are(were) restoring a "critter" at(courtesy of) Yanke and visit there regularly and haven't seen it.....however, several years ago I got thru to Mr Yanke and he claims he is still planning on rebuilding it into a business car for himself. It seems this is his private little project, much like there are thousands of boats and hot rods in garages across America that are going to be restored one day.

Has anyone seen this car, have a photo of it, is it still across from MPI, or has it been moved, scrapped?

I was one of the railfans who were restoring the critter (Sumpter Valley Ry. #100, 20T Whitcomb blt 1929) at the Yanke facility. I was aware of the car, but not of its history. Ron Yanke, longtime head of the company and likely the one you talked to, passed away in 2003. I believe his sons Mark & Dan run the company today. I spoke with Mark Yanke a few years ago. He mentioned the car and spoke ruefully of the high cost and amount of labor involved in restoring it to service. I also got the impression that it was a personal project as opposed to having the shop forces do the work. He did seem committed to the project, however. I'd say the car is in good hands...the Yanke family are serious preservationists in their own right with an extensive private collection of vintage automobiles, fire trucks, motorcycles and mining equipment. They also have [ahem] adequate resources; in addition to the gargantuan machine works which among other things fabricates the frames for MPI locomotives, the company is heavily invested in real estate, mining, electronics and energy developement. I would fully expect to see this car returned to the rails one day.