There has been a lot of speculation over the last year as to the sale of former-DL&W Phoebe Snow Diner 469. For most of that time, we’ve remained tight-lipped as we investigated the car, the condition it was in, and what options we had to possibly acquire the car. Thankfully, we can now make the announcement we’ve been holding under our hats for several months: ELDCPS is the very proud owners of DL&W Diner 469!

This is an exciting development for the Society. This diner is the most original and most complete of all three of our dining cars - the kitchen and dining area were last in use in March of 2009. Our inspection of this car shows that is in excellent mechanical condition with only a small punchlist of items that will need to be corrected in order to move the car directly to Scranton. The biggest issue is that one wheel set has a gouge out of its axle and must be replaced. We have purchased a replacement wheelset and the required bearing box. This will need to be shipped to Memphis for installation, along with a small assortment of other replacement parts.

We are grateful to our anonymous donor who covered the purchase price of this car along with the seed money for these repairs. Our top priority is to raise enough funds to get the car back to Scranton, and once there the cosmetic work - painting the exterior back to its Lackawanna colors, proper chairs and tables, stocking the car, etc. We have started a new donation program called the DL&W 469 Club to support getting this car up and running as quickly as possible. We would appreciate your consideration as part of your year-end giving plans. More details can be found on our website at http://www.eldcps.org/pages/donation_adopt.html#dlw469

We are also waiting for our newly acquired "Comet I" commuter coaches to be moved to Scranton. Our thanks to NJ Transit and Norfolk Southern for donation of the cars, and transportation to the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad. While these are not long distance coaches, they do represent the last cars purchased specifically for use on the EL, and will allow us to operate trips and carry enough passengers to generate needed revenue.

For all the latest information, please visit our website at http://www.eldcps.org

From all of us at ELDCPS, have a happy holiday season, and a happy new year!

May I be the first to say:

YEE HAW!

Bravo, wonderful! Not just on 469, but the Comet cars as well!

Here are a few photos that show why we are so excited to have acquired this diner:

The interior as it appears today. The car originally had tables of 4 and 2 - we will eventually return it to that configuration:


The kitchen:


These cars had a really interesting bar at the end of the car opposite of the kitchen:


Finally the exterior. The DL&W painted these cars in their gray-maroon-yellow scheme which we will do as well:


We will be ordering a full offering of the Lackawanna's "Phoebe Snow" pattern china and eventually the authentic linens, and glassware. We already are offering the flatware and even the appropriate chef's jackets!

For more info or to contribute, please visit our website: http://www.eldcps.org

By these photos is it safe to say that only "one" authentic General Fireproofing Co. of Youngstown, Ohio, diner chair is presently accounted for?

Steve ;)

Can anyone give me advice on how to get drool out of a computer keyboard? <:-p....

Steve donated a chair from sister car 470 (EL770). We will most certainly replace these "interesting" chairs with Steve's chair and other correct seats. The last owner of the car told us the original chairs were stored off site but were lost about 10 years ago in a fire.

I found a firm that makes the original style chairs in the USA for about $60 each and will likely order these. Somewhere down the road Steve's chair will go back to the car it came from - EL 770.

I'm assuming this will eventually be used in conjunction with the newly painted F3s at Steamtown?

These chairs can turn up in other places, if you look for them. Several years ago, when I worked for Detroit Edison, I discovered that they had these General Fireproof dining-car-style chairs in use in an employee break room. So, keep a look out for them when companies get rid of used office furniture.

Chris.

>> ...only "one" authentic General Fireproofing Co. of Youngstown,
>> Ohio, diner chair is presently accounted for?

> The last owner of the car told us the original chairs were stored
> off site but were lost about 10 years ago in a fire.

Lost in a fire? So much for "fireproof". Maybe they're covered under warranty? ;)

I didn't question it. In enough heat I could see them warping. Certainly the seat back and seat bottom would go or at least suck up enough smoke to have an odor.



I have a lead on 40+ chairs from two scrapped dining cars. The seat backs are in several colors and the material is all dirty/torn. I'm not sure how much it will cost to have these redone in the correct color, but if anyone has leads for a good set of matching chairs we certainly will take them.

As someone whose sister and friend do quite a bit of chair reupholstering for fun and profit, I can tell you it's not that much more difficult to do 40+ chairs than it is to do one chair. The hardest parts are always getting the "right" fabric and then figuring out the pattern. Once you get the one just right, the other 39 would be a figurative breeze--think "cookie-cutter".......

Seeing as Tim spilled the beans, I will tell you the story of the "one" chair . . .

Once upon a time there was a "famous" (depending upon your point of view) former railroad car owner and, I believe, radio personality who also had a penchant for having a booth in every antique flea market within a 200 mile radius of Washington, DC, that he filled with "reproduction" railroad china. One of these was on my migratory path between Baltimore, MD and Brunswick, MD. The first time I saw this chair in his booth I sneered, thought the price was too high, and kept browsing. The second time I happened by, I looked at the under side of the chair and found it stencilled "EL 770". I had to purchase it because. . . .

at the time I owned the former EL 770, stored in St. Louis, MO (with none of its original chairs).

Further attempts to get Mr. H. to let me know where he got the chair from, and/or if the rest existed, were futile.

So as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now you know. . . .the rest of the story!"

Steve

The General Fireproofing plant where these chairs were made is about 1/4 mile from the Tod Engine Heritage Park. In my office I have five sets of GF file cabinets. I'm sitting in a GF office chair and have some other GF items around here. On my office wall are the builders plates off the B&W boilers at the plant.

GF got started making steel lath for building construction. With steel lath in a concrete/brick building the structure then becomes "fireproof", hence the name. Later on they got into the office furniture business. Like many companies in the Youngstown area, they capitalized on the ready availability of steel to manufacture their products. GF furniture was built tough and was of high quality.

GF purchased an aluminum chair manufacturer at some point, and expanded their product offerings into aluminum furniture. They then opened a plant down south before shutting down the Youngstown plant in the late 1980s.

Post a picture of the GF chair in question. Maybe I can find some around here. Maybe I have one already!

OK, here is the chair:



And for Steve:


The chair seat is 18 inches off the ground and the chair back is16 inches tall from the seat bottom.

Sighhh
I have to laugh when I see this picture of this chair, which is sad. I Work for a current class 1 railroad and in the last couple of years the railroad I work for cleaned out a floor of one of our multi floor storage buildings in the middle of our major shop complex. In town next to the shop complex used to be the passenger car stores building now gone, which was right next to the downtown station. The reason I mention all of this is that around a year ago I was walking along the rear loading dock (Looking for a work related delivery) of the storage building that was being cleared out and to my suprise were 3 to 4 gondolas full of wooden partners desks, wood file cabnets, and what appeared to me where piles of "Office furniture", Well later I was told that what I was looking at was most of the GF chairs from the railroad diners and lounge cars that used to be based out of town here. Here I didn't realize that all those aluminum "Office Chairs" were from the pasenger cars that used to grace the rails! I didn't know and sorry to say most if not all those chiars were not saved. It's a same more of this isn't cought before it's too late, I didn't know at the time and I'm sure the workers at the railroad didn't know what they were throwing out. Well I'm doing better to keep an eye out knowing what others throw away could be rare or historic.