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NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47131		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Richard Glueck [ Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:01 pm ]
Post subject:  NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
"Bellefleur" sat in Derby, Maine for years and was eventually purchased for a geometry car, by NS. I haven't seen or read anything pertaining to the current status. Does anyone have news or photos of a rebuild in progress, or perhaps in service?
Author:  Rainier Rails [ Sat Dec 31, 2022 8:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
If you are referring to the former DL&W/CNJ #99 Belford, yes, it is now close to being placed in service as a track geometry (i.e., "research") car. It is lettered as NS #99 Belford, but also has DL&W reporting marks at the end of the letterboard. (Note: it was also temporarily numbered as NS #35.)

See the following AltoonaWorks post for a photo of the car after the body work was completed back in July.

https://www.facebook.com/altoonaworks/posts/pfbid02Fsci42bJbqPMhKX5dpyNmgu1gxDaGutusDHQ9BYtWTPBxH8rn6LyyXdeD7oSmFPsl
Author:  nedsn3 [ Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
Beautiful car. When at Station Square in Pittsburgh it had 2-axle trucks. Those trucks must have come off of the car sold or given to that unremembered museum. It went w/o trucks.
Ned
Author:  EJ Berry [ Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
This is the car with "Perry Shoemaker Windows" that came from EL to CNJ when Shoemaker became President of CNJ. He had been President of DL&W but when the EL merger came he was "Designated for Assignment" as they say in baseball. CNJ picked him up.

Word was Shoemaker had a "thing" about people being able to look into the dining room of an office car so he had the windows raised so people on a low level platform couldn't see in. [DL&W had no high level platforms but CNJ did]

Phil Mulligan
Author:  Richard Glueck [ Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
"Belford", of course. I have a bit of difficulty remembering specific names these days! Sorry.

Beautiful refurbishment as a heavyweight with a modern purpose. I actually had a (very) minor role in getting her out of Derby shops and onto a new life, so forgiving my lapse of memory, please.

When I first inspected the car, it still was configured lavishly as a private sleeper with fireplace, copper floored kitchen, coal stove...and asbestos. Vagrants or vandals had done horrible damage to the private spaces, so this was a real investment to bring back.
Delighted!
Author:  K.R. Bell [ Wed Jan 04, 2023 1:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
For a time, the "Belford" 99 was owned by the Smithsonian Institution, a July 1969 gift of Pittsburgh socialite Peter B. Bell (who lived in the car for a brief time with his wife). It was kept at Washington's Union Station until 1975 and chiefly used by SI Secretary S. Dillion Ripley as he commuted between his home in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. Sometime in the 1980's the car ended up back in Bell's hands (does anybody know the backstory?) and was diverted to Station Square in Pittsburgh where it fell into disrepair. When Bell moved to Mexico the car became the property of his daughter (a resident of California who was a weather newscaster in San Diego for a time and an aspiring actress) who sent it to Vermont to be rebuilt by a contractor. I guess the funds never materialized, the car ended up in Maine and then was purchased by NS circa 2014.

The car was originally built by Pullman in 1926 for use by executive George Baker.

K.R. Bell
Author:  wilkinsd [ Wed Jan 04, 2023 5:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
EJ Berry wrote:
This is the car with "Perry Shoemaker Windows" that came from EL to CNJ when Shoemaker became President of CNJ. He had been President of DL&W but when the EL merger came he was "Designated for Assignment" as they say in baseball. CNJ picked him up.

Word was Shoemaker had a "thing" about people being able to look into the dining room of an office car so he had the windows raised so people on a low level platform couldn't see in. [DL&W had no high level platforms but CNJ did]

Phil Mulligan



That's likely sandhouse gossip. The car's high windows were in the bedrooms, not in the dining room, and the high bedroom windows was a feature on private cars of the era. For example, D&RGW 100, now at Heber has them, and I've seen them on other PVs such as the P&WV's business car.
Author:  EJ Berry [ Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
My bad. Upon further review, the high windows extend the whole length of the accomodation area. But it does seem unique to Mr. Shoemaker.

Phil Mulligan
Author:  wilkinsd [ Mon Jan 09, 2023 2:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
EJ Berry wrote:
My bad. Upon further review, the high windows extend the whole length of the accomodation area. But it does seem unique to Mr. Shoemaker.

Phil Mulligan


But it's not. If you look at late-wood, early steel era private/business cars, it's a common feature on the cars as built. Some were later rebuilt with standard window locations. However, even on a high platform, the high windows wouldn't help.

For example, here's P&WV business car 300 "Westmorland"

http://www.thepwvhiline.com/PWV300Westm ... 13Web.html

DRGW 107, which is now at Heber:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=5212459
Author:  Joshua K. Blay [ Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
Its neat to see the nod to its history as a DL&W car but the car has been very heavily rebuilt; many windows have been altered.

You can see the change in windows on this same side here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 992&type=3

Joshua
Author:  diningcartim [ Tue Jan 10, 2023 11:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
OK, now DL&W 99 has been saved. I know I was involved in an effort to rescue it at least 15 years ago, so this was a long time in the making.

Now, how do we go about saving Lehigh & New England #100?
Author:  Thomas Cornillie [ Tue Jan 10, 2023 12:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
The degree of modifications made by NS to this car means that it no longer resembles any of the configurations that it operated with during its periods of historical significance. In many ways, it is similar to the GP7 and GP9 locomotives, whose frames and trucks were used as the basis for genset locomotives. For example, a glance at a list of Erie or Lackawanna GP7/9 locomotives might show many survivors, but a closer look would show that there is only one survivor from each railroad that looks like a GP.

Other cars that have been modified to this extent recently include the Erie sleeper "Spirit of Youngstown," the B&O dome car "Moonlight Dome"—both heavily modified by CSX—and the former NP duplex sleeper "Chicago," rebuilt for MofW service by NS.

The upside is that the railroads have found a way to make side-sill repairs and car body repairs to cars that many museums would consider beyond repair.
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Sat Feb 11, 2023 12:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
Test run today:

https://www.facebook.com/richard.d.shel ... 1Ndf6ezwGl

Image
Author:  Richard Glueck [ Sat Feb 11, 2023 12:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
Oh man, is that a sight for sore eyes! If you had wandered through it when it was dead and open in Derby, Maine, you'd never believe what was posted here.
Thanks, Alex #4 for posting the link! Let's wish her a long, long, service life.
Author:  Alan Maples [ Sun Feb 12, 2023 8:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: NS geometry car "Bellefleur"; update on status?
This car was rebuilt to its present configuration by Willetts Railcar Services. Bob Willetts gave an excellent presentation on the project at the recent RPCA conference at Spencer, NC, with an emphasis on the use of mockups to test fit interior components.

More information and photos here: https://willettsrailcarservice.com/current-project/

Alan Maples
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