Great news, as some of you know, I had been working for a while now trying to get a McKeen Motor Car that ran in San Diego back home, The S.D.C.&ERwy. "Cuyamaca." Thursday the car was lifted from the ground and placed on a truck, from there the truck went to the shipyard in Anchorage and will leave Sunday. Then it will arrive in Seattle around Thursday and hopefully reach San Diego Sunday the 20th. I would like to thank everyone who has helped get this project going. Once the car arrives home, we will start phase 2 of our restoration, the stabilization/documentation phase.

The dimensions used for estimating the shipping cost were slightly less then the actual dimensions, this has resulted in an additional cost of $2000. I am putting out an all call for help to cover this difference, as it exceeds what we had budgeted for contingency. Anything you can send to help with this would be greatly appreciated. Click on the link Here to visit the GoFundMe page or donations can be made out to the M.M.C.C.H.S. and sent to P.O.Box. 2166 Ramona, California 92065.

I will be sharing more photos on this post once they come in, I have a few photographers who will shoot the car when it comes down the coast, so those photos will be posted as well. Keep an eye out for the car in the Train's News Wire as well.

Whats the plan for this car? It looks like there isnt much left

These units are EXTREMELY rare, there is the restored one in Nevada, and another carbody-only in Utah, and I think that is it. I believe the Nevada group didn't start with much more. There are no McKeen truck mounted gas engines around, that would be unique but it is ultimately what led to the company's demise, the unreliable engines. They will likely need to have trucks cast.

The Nevada RR Museum in Carson City uses a Caterpillar 3208 engine and (I think) a hydraulic drive system to run their McKeen. From what I've read in Interurbans without Wires: There's a very good reason why there are no original McKeen engines left--they were extremely troublesome, and the transmissions were no fun either.

The Mckeen car was stored in at least two other places in Anchorage during the 35 years I have lived here, as a storage shed in a salvage yard and next to a street in an industrial area. It's surprising that it has lasted as long as it has. Good luck with the project.

Yes, there are only the three McKeen Cars still around that you stated, Virginia & Truckee #22, Southern Utah #100, and the San Diego Cuyamaca & Eastern Railway "Cuyamaca." There is a fourth, the Chicago Great Western #1000 out back in the storage lot at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, but the only things left on it that are McKeen are some of the roof supports, that's it.

The engines weren't saved for that reason, they were troublesome and bulky, but also because their drive system was terrible. Silent Morse Chain Drive to a Clutch/Transmission that was mounted on the axle itself. It was a very complicated design, and was not executed well. If McKeen was also less stubborn, he may have been able to fix some of the problems and survive to work on M-10000, if that would have even become a thing. If so, M-10000 would have looked a lot different.

I have to thank the Anchorage Historical Society for that, the President, Gina Hollomon has kept her safe from more than I thought, she's had to deal with legal battles against a former mayor and had to move it from location to location just because there was never a good spot to store her. In the 20 or so years that Gina watched over her, she kept her safe from a lot of things, and people.

Thank you for your support, I greatly appreciate it. It truly is amazing that it still exists and that we get to work on her. I hope to post more here once the car arrives. Keep your eyes open, and if you haven't, like our Facebook page, I share most everything there first. It's just the easiest.

I'm pretty sure IRM has the only remaining McKeen trailer car. It has the round windows and had been used for storage by a private owner in Cheyenne until donated.

There is another trailer car in Northern Calfironia. But the IRM one was owned by James Ehernberger in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Man I applaud your organization for taking on a job like that, but you may as well build a completely new car for what little is left of the original.

I wish we just had the funding to fix the roof..

It will require a lot of work, but out of whats left, the roof and frame will be reused, the sheet steel that makes it look bad of course won't be. However, the frame of the car has very little rust surprisingly. And thank you for your support, it will take a lot of work, but it'll be a fun project.

Are any of the old Sperry diesel-electric doodlebugs still around? Seems like one of those could provide the trucks and equipment to get the McKeen operational, albeit with a more modern and different propulsion system.

I might look into that, either that or I might look into Tesla's 470 HP electric motor. Back on Sperry, I heard a rumor about a McKeen Car being converted for Sperry Rail Service, anyone know about that?

Not according to this or the similar roster in the January 1979 Railfan Magazine:

http://www.trainweb.org/elso/SRSROST1.HTM

I was never sure of it, but I would guess it would be on an older roster. Sperry Rail Service began in 1929, I think this is too late of a roster, is there a roster from around 1935 to '45?