I recently learned that for a few years there were 13 passenger cars stored in Randolph, MN. These cars recently were moved. The link below is to photos of 8 of them that were moved to South St. Paul, MN. Anyone know anything about these cars? The only obvious thing is that some of the cars are definately from the Milwaukee Road. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Boyd Owens

Passenger cars in South St. Paul, MN
ddg14@attbi.com

> I recently learned that for a few years
> there were 13 passenger cars stored in
> Randolph, MN. These cars recently were
> moved. The link below is to photos of 8 of
> them that were moved to South St. Paul, MN.
> Anyone know anything about these cars? The
> only obvious thing is that some of the cars
> are definately from the Milwaukee Road. Any
> info would be appreciated.

The CBRX reporting marks were assigned in late 2001 to a private individual in Minneapolis. From what I can tell from the numbers and grainy pictures, as well as my roster information, the individual appears to have numbered the cars to their original road numbers (for ex., the dome appears to match Great Northern 1320, a 46-seat coach built in 1955). Unless the individual volunteers information himself, I shall protect his or her identity.


lner4472@bcpl.net

Those cars are owned by passenger car enthusiast "Big Bob" Moen, formerly of the Minneapolis area but now residing in Lawrence, KS. He is a fan of the GN and the Milwaukee. He has no particular plans for the cars but enjoys owning them and working on them when time and money permit. The boarded up Shasta coach is the one that lived under the Omaha Union Station parking lot for years and was sold a year or two ago by Bob to a guy from So Cal.

> Those cars are owned by passenger car
> enthusiast "Big Bob" Moen,
> formerly of the Minneapolis area but now
> residing in Lawrence, KS.

Funny, that's not whose name turned up on the reporting marks registration. Did Bob Moen just acquire the fleet in the past year or two?

lner4472@bcpl.net

Weblurker's dome-main page says that Bob Moen acquired the GN dome car (#1320) in May 1993.

> Funny, that's not whose name turned up on
> the reporting marks registration. Did Bob
> Moen just acquire the fleet in the past year
> or two?


davew833@yahoo.com

>"Big Bob"! Where did that come from? I didn't know I had gained so much weight!!

I thought I'd shed some light on the cars that you saw. They have been stored at Randolph since 1998. The cars are indeed mostly of GN & MILW heritage. I share reporting marks with a friend of mine. The cars are:

GN 1320 Dome Coach, Budd, 1955.

GN 1243 Ranch Car, both from the Empire Builder built by ACF 1951.

PRR Greenwood, 10-6 Budd sleeper from the Seaboard Florida Trains.

MILW 471 Hiawatha coach built 1942 from Green Bay museum a few years ago.

MILW 623 Hiawatha coach built 1948 from Atlantic, IA sale a few years ago (ex-purple martin car).

MILW 639 Hiawatha coach built 1948 from Duluth museum.

NP 234 Baggage car built in 1963.

My first goal has been to preserve these cars and my second is to restore them to operation as time and money permit. There has been alot of restoration effort put into several of these cars.I'm glad to see that people are still interested in the cars. Car ownership is a great hobby and I reccomend it to anyone interested. There are a number of cars out there that need homes with people who want to restore them. Ozarkmountainrailcar.com is a great place to find these cars and Rail Passenger Car Alliance www.rpca.com is a great organization to join to learn about restoring them. They have excellent conventions, full of information.

For most people, making the cars Amtrak runable is financially unrealistic, but many of these cars can be made tourist railroad or fan trip runable for much less money. Even if you don't have alot of money, if you love the cars, you can still have alot of fun just working on them standing still! I got into my first car for the price of a new sofa! I can tell you that I've had a lot more fun with that car than I ever would have with some more furnature! Besides, when the price of brass models equals the cost of buying a real car, I'd rather have the real thing!

I recently learned that for a few years
> there were 13 passenger cars stored in
> Randolph, MN. These cars recently were
> moved. The link below is to photos of 8 of
> them that were moved to South St. Paul, MN.
> Anyone know anything about these cars? The
> only obvious thing is that some of the cars
> are definately from the Milwaukee Road. Any
> info would be appreciated.

> Thanks,
> Boyd Owens


robert_moen@msn.com

Bob,

Thanks for the info on your cars.

Boyd

ddg14@attbi.com