Railway Preservation News :: View topic - B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR

From WMSR's Facebook page:

"An Unexpected, Incredible Homecoming!
Thanks to the efforts of our friend Kelly Lynch, Executive Director of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and the generosity of a private donor, a remarkable piece of railroad history is coming home.
We are proud to announce the donation of former Baltimore & Ohio Office Car #905 to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. This historic business car, named Silver Spring after the B&O passenger stop in Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of just 19 executive cars in the B&O’s prestigious fleet. It was last outfitted at the legendary Mount Clare Shops—now part of the B&O Railroad Museum—and stands as a stunning example of mid-century railroad luxury and craftsmanship.
For years, Silver Spring traveled the mainline behind the railroad’s flagship Capitol Limited, making regular visits to Cumberland and representing the B&O’s executive class on one of its most iconic trains. Now, decades later, it returns not only to the region it once frequented but to a community that celebrates and preserves the legacy of American railroading.
This is more than just a passenger car—it’s a living artifact with stories to tell, and we’re honored to give it a new home. Visitors and guests will soon have the chance to experience this extraordinary piece of rolling history firsthand.
Welcome back, Silver Spring. Your journey has come full circle."

As someone who lives near Utica, I'm certainly glad to see it going to what should be a good home. It hasn't moved in at least a decade, has been sitting outside with no cover or noticeable care in NY weather, and Utica is a pretty rough city. I'd been expecting to see it vandalized or burned the next time I went by.

Author:	NJDixon [ Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:56 am ]
Post subject:	B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
From WMSR's Facebook page: "An Unexpected, Incredible Homecoming! Thanks to the efforts of our friend Kelly Lynch, Executive Director of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and the generosity of a private donor, a remarkable piece of railroad history is coming home. We are proud to announce the donation of former Baltimore & Ohio Office Car #905 to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. This historic business car, named Silver Spring after the B&O passenger stop in Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of just 19 executive cars in the B&O’s prestigious fleet. It was last outfitted at the legendary Mount Clare Shops—now part of the B&O Railroad Museum—and stands as a stunning example of mid-century railroad luxury and craftsmanship. For years, Silver Spring traveled the mainline behind the railroad’s flagship Capitol Limited, making regular visits to Cumberland and representing the B&O’s executive class on one of its most iconic trains. Now, decades later, it returns not only to the region it once frequented but to a community that celebrates and preserves the legacy of American railroading. This is more than just a passenger car—it’s a living artifact with stories to tell, and we’re honored to give it a new home. Visitors and guests will soon have the chance to experience this extraordinary piece of rolling history firsthand. Welcome back, Silver Spring. Your journey has come full circle." As someone who lives near Utica, I'm certainly glad to see it going to what should be a good home. It hasn't moved in at least a decade, has been sitting outside with no cover or noticeable care in NY weather, and Utica is a pretty rough city. I'd been expecting to see it vandalized or burned the next time I went by.

Author:	PrrOpCrew [ Thu Jul 10, 2025 12:54 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
Dare I ask, what does this mean for the future of Western Maryland business car #204 that is already there and needs an operational restoration?

Author:	PMC [ Thu Jul 10, 2025 4:36 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
PrrOpCrew wrote: Dare I ask, what does this mean for the future of Western Maryland business car #204 that is already there and needs an operational restoration? In the past they said this: https://www.facebook.com/WMSRailroad/po ... DbRbFMJCvl "Western Maryland Scenic Railroad April 6, 2021 [redacted] Has there been any progress made to the 204? Reply 4y Author Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Hi Sean. 204 was wrapped and prepared for long term storage. At the moment our car shop is focusing their efforts on higher capacity cars that will generate more revenue. Quite a bit remains to be done to the 204 so until time and funding allows it is fairly low on the priority list. Reply 4y Edited" I don't see how this B&O car would be any different than 204, in that it isn't a "higher capacity car", so I would expect them both, along with the C&S wood coach they paid to drag back from Colorado, to be "fairly low on the priority list" and remain in storage. Hopefully its storage situation will be better than Utica.

Author:	Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Mon Jul 14, 2025 12:37 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
I'm going to assume that this B&O office car is presently far closer to operable and "presentable" condition than the WM business car was/is. Look at other railroads that operate "premium class" service cars--from Strasburg to the Grand Canyon Railway. Those premium-fare cars are usually the first to sell out. I presume that is the strategy behind this acquisition. I also suspect it was a case of "we need to find this car a new home sooner rather than later" and with the help of Brother Lynch it ended up with WMSR instead of Fort Wayne, D&GV, or whoever, for whatever reason(s). Although in theory it's "none of our business" how this deal transpired, it would be interesting to hear what went into the decision-making process. For all we know, the owner was not in a financial position to enjoy a tax write-off to a nonprofit, for example. (I've seen that more than once, sometimes involving estates.)

Author:	NJDixon [ Mon Jul 14, 2025 12:50 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
According to some of the Adirondack guys, the Silver Spring was used on the Adirondack as recently as 2019, so it should be in pretty decent condition.

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Author:	mmi16 [ Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:20 am ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
NJDixon wrote: From WMSR's Facebook page: "An Unexpected, Incredible Homecoming! Thanks to the efforts of our friend Kelly Lynch, Executive Director of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and the generosity of a private donor, a remarkable piece of railroad history is coming home. We are proud to announce the donation of former Baltimore & Ohio Office Car #905 to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. This historic business car, named Silver Spring after the B&O passenger stop in Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of just 19 executive cars in the B&O’s prestigious fleet. It was last outfitted at the legendary Mount Clare Shops—now part of the B&O Railroad Museum—and stands as a stunning example of mid-century railroad luxury and craftsmanship. For years, Silver Spring traveled the mainline behind the railroad’s flagship Capitol Limited, making regular visits to Cumberland and representing the B&O’s executive class on one of its most iconic trains. Now, decades later, it returns not only to the region it once frequented but to a community that celebrates and preserves the legacy of American railroading. This is more than just a passenger car—it’s a living artifact with stories to tell, and we’re honored to give it a new home. Visitors and guests will soon have the chance to experience this extraordinary piece of rolling history firsthand. Welcome back, Silver Spring. Your journey has come full circle." As someone who lives near Utica, I'm certainly glad to see it going to what should be a good home. It hasn't moved in at least a decade, has been sitting outside with no cover or noticeable care in NY weather, and Utica is a pretty rough city. I'd been expecting to see it vandalized or burned the next time I went by. In B&O operations - Office cars were numbered and not named. The B&O car Silver Spring was a combination baggage/Coffee Shop Lounge that was a part of the streamlined Columbian train sets that were delivered from Pullman-Standard in 1949, its partner in the two train sets of equipment was the Harpers Ferry. When the Columbian was consolidated into the Capitol these two cars were at the head end of the train just behind any mail/express on the train.

Author:	Topfuel [ Thu Jul 17, 2025 11:04 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
My understanding is that this car is in pretty rough shape structurally, which is why the current owner - who only bought the car a year or two ago without having a qualified person Inspect it - gave it away. The car needed way more work than he was willing to do on it. Maybe for a tourist RR like the WMSR, they can get away with minimal repairs to make it usable. We will see.

Author:	Rainier Rails [ Sun Jul 20, 2025 8:31 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: B&O obs car Silver Spring to WMSR
PMC wrote: A photo from 1976 has this caption: "Ex-B&O business car #905, nee-Pullman Plan #3410A 12S-1DR sleeper, either the EAST NEWARK (wrecked on B&O at Waring's Siding, MD, on 7/2/1944), or the EAST NORWOOD (streamlined in May 1940 for the NATIONAL LIMITED [Plan #3410E/later #3410I], and sold to B&O at 12/31/1948 divestiture as #7423, but not withheld from Pullman lease until 11/1966, so maybe not the car rebuilt to #905 [conjecture])." That is my comment on Mr. Herbert's photo. Yes, I still am not fully convinced either way which of the 12-1's the #905 was converted from, due to the unique dispositions for both candidates. Either #905 was a very late conversion (the East Norwood, no earlier than 11/66) or was the result of the B&O acquiring a car (the East Newark) that was already slated for transfer to them at the Pullman divestiture (12/31/1948), but which was wrecked in the "intermediate". (It wouldn't be an isolated case, if that is the truth here.) While the Pullman records (Mr. Madden's compilation of such) doesn't list such a resultant sale of the East Newark to the B&O following the wreck, in my mind it is not out of the realm of possibility. And yes, there is one source that had the #905 listed as the ex-East Newark: the list of PV's that was maintained by the late Stan Garner.

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