From an earlier post:
<Just thought I'd ad a little more info on <Prairie Du Chein for those who've never heard of <the situation there. The owner of the railroad <cars mentioned is a "collector" of many things. <His "collection" includes the railroad <equipment, a railroad hotel, a railroad depot, a <turntable, many church steeples, a log cabin, <and a Mississippi river towboat, to name just <some of what he has. The majority of what he <owns is just rusting/rotting away. But he just <keeps adding to his "collection" and not doing <much with most of it. Basicly another Buckeye <Lake situation as I understand what's happening <there. Boyd

Spent last Saturday night in PDC, I found the railcars all lined up: little identification. Several wood boxcars with metal reinforcing; a centercab that is void of prime movers and in rough shape, a diner(with slding glass door cut in), a lounge sleeper?, wooden caboose, a baggage car(with slding glass door cut in), Plymouth switcher and other cars very far gone. , the aforementioned collection, presumably, of odds and ends was located on a flood plain area near a restored Victorian mansion (a state historic site). The depot there is beautifully restored into a bar, the hotel is currently being reconstructed at considerable expense to somebody, the turntable is stored on its side near a shed there and seemed in decent condition. No pics as it was getting too dark when I found everything.


wyld@sbcglobal.net

Corey,

You missed the other half of the collection. To the south, down by an old feed mill, are most of the cabooses, the wrecker, a couple of tank cars, and a couple more passenger cars. There are also a few more cabooses stored at various sites around town.
While all the railroad cars are rotting away, their owner is pumping all his money into restoring the old railroad hotel. The hotel is basicly just a brick shell, having been completely gutted when it was converted into a meat packing plant. The hotel restoration has been in progress for many years now.

Boyd

bowens@rypn.org