At the Walkersville Southern Railroad there is a Pullman car called the Meadowlark that is a combination of sleeping compartments and a lounge. One of the volunteers working on it sent this email to me:

There is crown molding around the walls. The electrical wiring is run in this molding. There are 1" X 2" access panels in the top of the molding. In my opinion I think that these access panels are too small to pull out the old wires and install new ones.

I think that the wiring was installed before the molding, and what we see is just a cover plate. If it is a cover plate we should be able to remove it, but how?

Can you do some research and see if you can find some details as how this was built?

I can't find any railroad sites with any information.

Does anyone have the answer to this fellow's question?

I would suggest contacting Bob Weber at the Pullman Library at IRM. Pullman used these steel moldings in thousands of cars; they must have had drawings of the moldings and attachments. Here is contact info: https://www.irm.org/pullmanlibrary/

How much wiring do you need to do. I can't believe you can't get modern nylon insulated stranded wire in through the access plates. Look for Machine Tool Wire (MTW) it's super flexible.

Thanks! I've passed your response on to those working on the project.

At the moment I can't answer your question regarding how much wiring needs to be done because I'm not at all involved in that project. I'll see if I can get an answer for you.