Railway Preservation News
https://www.rypn.org/forums/

Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41937		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  WesternStar [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:35 am ]
Post subject:  Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
The Northwest Railway Museum has begun the difficult task of moving a remarkably intact Pullman parlor car from an island beach on Puget Sound. Car 1799 was built in 1901 for the Northern Pacific Railway, and has been protected under a shelter since the mid 1970s. Remarkably, it has been located just 20 feet from high tide since 1941, but it has been on the leeward side of the island.

A house moving company has been hired to perform the extraction - it will be leaving the island on a barge. Why? When the car was adaptively repurposed as a cottage, the truss rods were removed. This means the car frame will not support itself for more than a few hours or days at a time - it will sag and fail in the center if left without support for any significant length of time. Extracting a car with not truss rods and in a remote location is a rather costly operation, but the reward for rail preservation is a car that has been largely untouched since retirement in 1941.

The Northwest Railway Museum would be grateful for your support in any amount to ensure this undertaking is completed. You can schedule a contribution for May's Give Big charitable giving event: https://www.givebigseattle.org/northwest-railway-museum

Image
Author:  Randy Gustafson [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 3:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Wow, just....wow.

Are you moving it all the way down the coast by barge... how to destination?
Author:  Bobharbison [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 3:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Glad to see this one saved, you guys are doing some wonderful stuff with wood cars.

Randy, the trip up Snoqualmie Falls could be quite the challenge for the barge. :)
Author:  ted66 [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Western Star,
You folks at the Northwest Pacific Museum are sure doing great work. I remember reading about this project last year when it was first announced here.

And that is not all; you just have moved a wood Interurban from the Seattle and Tacoma Railway, up from Petaluma, California recently.

Great work folks!

Ted66
Author:  colfaxstation [ Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Sure looks like overkill with the I beam supports. We moved a similar NP car with larger cut outs on both sides on a stretch flat bed trailer, with proper wood cribbing under the frame. Is there an involved lift to get it up from where it sat? My past experience is that
house movers tend to really over engineer car moves. Curious as far as future moves may go.
Author:  kew [ Tue May 01, 2018 12:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
colfaxstation wrote:
Sure looks like overkill with the I beam supports. We moved a similar NP car with larger cut outs on both sides on a stretch flat bed trailer, with proper wood cribbing under the frame. Is there an involved lift to get it up from where it sat? My past experience is that
house movers tend to really over engineer car moves. Curious as far as future moves may go.


Maybe that's all house movers have lying around. The probably don't carry small I-beams when their main business is moving buildings.
Author:  WesternStar [ Tue May 01, 2018 2:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
The parlor car had all its truss rods removed so the frame was vulnerable even without the door cutouts. A breach in the center sill was also discovered during the final preparations so the extra strength proved to be necessary for the move at hand.

The parlor car move is not an average move. It is being moved off an ocean beach, turned 90 degrees and loaded on a barge. And when the tractor was having trouble getting the package moving, a second tractor was able to rig up to the side of the assembly and pull.

Richard R Anderson
Northwest Railway Museum
Author:  colfaxstation [ Tue May 01, 2018 11:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
The sand issue makes sense why the extra support.
Author:  WesternStar [ Tue May 01, 2018 6:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
A little more progress was reported on the Museum's blog: https://trainmuseum.blogspot.com/2018/04/putting-wheels-under-parlor-car.html
Author:  BB&BC [ Wed May 02, 2018 11:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
This is such a treasure, and the sight of it sailing south towards its new home makes me very happy. What has been accomplished so far has not been cheap, and the time to contribute saving this significant artifact is NOW! I'm certain the museum would appreciate any donation.
Author:  WesternStar [ Fri May 04, 2018 10:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
The Museum has posted two short videos of the move on its blog:

https://trainmuseum.blogspot.com/2018/05/loading-barge-redux.html

Richard R. Anderson
Northwest Railway Museum
Author:  Dennis Storzek [ Fri May 04, 2018 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Interesting that the tug is out of Ketchikan, Alaska. Nobody more local that could do this job? There must be a story here.
Author:  John T [ Fri May 04, 2018 3:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
I really doubt that the tug came down from Alaska to do the job. She was probably down here to pick up a tow and got a side job. Tugs are in and out of Seattle all the time. I note that the barge belongs to the Corp of Engineers.
Author:  PMC [ Fri May 04, 2018 4:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
Alco or EMD engines on the tug? A fantastic save, the intact interior makes this move worthwhile, I'm guessing replacement trucks will be very tough to find though.
Author:  WesternStar [ Sun May 06, 2018 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Preserving & moving a 1901 Pullman parlor car
PMC,

The Museum has located a set of replacement trucks, but first we need to get the car moved all the way to the Snoqualmie. We would be most please to accept contributions in support of that effort, too!

Our local paper wrote a nice article this week:

http://www.valleyrecord.com/life/give-big-for-parlor-car-1799/

Richard R. Anderson
Northwest Railway Museum
Page 1 of 2 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/