Anyone know the whereabouts of surviving Erie RR Stillwell coaches?

I think I saw some in Peru on the Cerro de Pasco line in 1984. You probably didn't expect to hear that!

> Anyone know the whereabouts of surviving
> Erie RR Stillwell coaches?

> I think I saw some in Peru on the Cerro de
> Pasco line in 1984. You probably didn't
> expect to hear that!

What almost no one expects to hear is that the C de P Stillwell is actually ex- New York, Westchester & Boston!!!! Far more rare than an Erie car! A group went to South America after WW2 service for the US Maritime Commission in California. I understand it is "available" for preservation, due to currently sympathetic (to railway preservation issues) ownership. But, "serious inquiries only" has never been more true than in this case. If interested, contact me.


hpincus@mindspring.com

Doesn't the "Skunk Train" have some Stilwells?

-Alan Levy

alanl759@aol.com

> Anyone know the whereabouts of surviving
> Erie RR Stillwell coaches?

The Black River & Western in NJ had at least two Erie Stillwells--one used as a coach and the other as an open car (a.k.a. the "Tower of Power Super Gon"). A story told to me by a BR&W veteran said that the open car had been modified in such a way that the structural integrity of the car was weakened by the cutting away of the roof and walls, thus defeating the entire design principle adopted by Mr. Stillwell. It sagged so badly at one point that the BR&W permanently removed it from service. The open car was stored in Lambertville for years on a derelict siding. Both are believed to have been scrapped.

JJ,

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in Rush, NY owns an ex-Erie Stillwell, #2328 (Built 1926). The car was used last by the railroad as a bunk car before we acquired it many years ago. The car is currently gutted awaiting an interior restoration along with some continued exterior work. The car has received all new steel side sheets and all new windows over the past several years. We hope to return it to service as a working coach someday.

An interesting tidbit... Our Stillwell car had three riveted cylindrical tanks under it to I believe hold fuel oil for a heater as a bunk car. I have to believe these tanks might have been steam engine air tanks that we re-used as they are long, riveted cylinders as you would have seen under the running boards on steamers. Too bad we couldn't just add some water and have an Erie steamer sprout from them.

The Chemung Valley Railroad Historical Society in Elmira, NY also owns a Stillwell coach that is currently stored in Binghamton, NY on the NYS&W I believe. http://www.chemungvalleyrhs.com/

I hope that helps.

Until later,
Chris Hauf


Rochester & Genesee Valley RR Museum
crhauf@frontiernet.net

> Anyone know the whereabouts of surviving
> Erie RR Stillwell coaches?

Whitewater Valley uses a couple I believe on their passenger train. And the folks in French Lick have two or three in near derelict condition.

Les Beckman (HVRM)


midlandblb@cs.com

> Anyone know the whereabouts of surviving
> Erie RR Stillwell coaches?

The Gettysburg Railroad had two - I presume they are still there. Erie nos. 2508 & 2619. Both came to Gettysburg via the Lavonia, Avon & Lakeville, as did quite a bit of the LA&L's excursion equipment.

The Everett Railroad bought Erie Stillwell no. 2191 in 1965. All of the Everett's excursion equipment was sold in 1971 to the Williams Grove Speedway. To the best of my knowledge, what's left of the car can still be found at Williams Grove.

Alan Maples


AMaples@aol.com

> Whitewater Valley uses a couple I believe on
> their passenger train. And the folks in
> French Lick have two or three in near
> derelict condition.

> Les Beckman (HVRM)

The Whitewater Valley has 6 ex-Erie Stillwell cars. These include 2331, 2420, 2471, 2600, 2612, and 2634. I believe that all but the 2420 are currently in service. All have been in service within the last 5 years. The 2331 still has the arches above the windows.

Ryan

lima709@aol.com

> The Gettysburg Railroad had two - I presume
> they are still there. Erie nos. 2508 &
> 2619. Both came to Gettysburg via the
> Lavonia, Avon & Lakeville, as did quite
> a bit of the LA&L's excursion equipment.

One of the Gettysburg Stillwells was sold through broker D.F. Barnhart in 2000 and is somewhere in South Carolina. Last I knew, the other one was still in Adams County.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

I seem to remember hearing they scrapped a pair of them a few years back. Apparently they were in pretty awful condition from all the salt air.

Thanks, Taylor

thrush@smt-net.com

> The Whitewater Valley has 6 ex-Erie
> Stillwell cars. These include 2331, 2420,
> 2471, 2600, 2612, and 2634. I believe that
> all but the 2420 are currently in service.
> All have been in service within the last 5
> years. The 2331 still has the arches above
> the windows.

> Ryan

Just for the record, Erie Stillwells are not all the same, though they share the same construction principles. We have three different types with 3 different truck styles. With our recent purchase of the former Steamtown cars we have 9 total.
The Whitewater Valley is probably one of the few places where you can ride the various different ones.

Number 2471 (Pullman 1934) has just been repainted with Pullman green Imron and is awaiting its original lettering. It never had arched windows (seats 92 passengers). Erie Stillell #2331 is the shorter commuter model (86 seats) with arch bar trucks, built in 1926 as is believed to have been part of the Chicago & Western Indiana commuter fleet after leaving the Erie. We are planning to restore this car early next year.

We also have three of the 2600 series cars (2600, 2612, and 2634) on the property that were built by ACF in 1934. They are semi-suburban (76 passenger)cars and have heavy cast trucks. We have also recently purchased the three cars formerly at Steamtown from the scrap company. These are also semi-suburban 2600 series cars (one is 2607, I am not sure of the other two yet).

Erie 2634 and 2420 are out of service right now as Ryan mentioned. #2420 could be returned to service with relatively little effort, however it does need some upholstery work and paint to be presentable. #2634 was damaged in last year's derailment, status yet to be determined. It may become a source of parts to allow one of the Steamtown cars to be put back together.

David Farlow
Whitewater Valley RR

2600 series converted to rider coach

hudson.industries@att.net

I'm pretty sure there is one parked beside the railroad station in Centre Hall, PA as part of a railroad-theme restaurant. Track has been removed since the early 80's. That's between Rt. 322 and I-80 in dead central PA. It was in pretty good shape, at least at a quick glance.

randygustafson@stoneconsulting.com

> What almost no one expects to hear is that
> the C de P Stillwell is actually ex- New
> York, Westchester & Boston!!!! Far more
> rare than an Erie car! A group went to South
> America after WW2 service for the US
> Maritime Commission in California. I
> understand it is "available" for
> preservation, due to currently sympathetic
> (to railway preservation issues) ownership.
> But, "serious inquiries only" has
> never been more true than in this case. If
> interested, contact me.

Easy way to tell if they're ex-NYW&B Stillwell coaches - they all had center doors. If they're still there or have the remaining provisions for them, you might have a winner.

janklorenzen@msn.com

I visited La Oroya, Peru on various occasions in the sixties and seventies and saw the Stillwells that are mentioned in this thread. They indeed were ex-NYW&B cars as there was a square opening above the windows what had apparently once been a narrow sliding door in the center of the cars. In removing the doors, the belt rail and lower car side had been rebuilt to match the remainder of car. All of the other window openings were arched. The cars were operated on the Cerro de Pasco Railway which was then owned by a US mining company and is presently owned by Centromin, a Peruvian public sector company. The CdeP is presently operated by RDC of Pittsburgh as a part of their Central Railroad of Peru system. There is a very good picture of Stillwell #112 on page 73 of Donald Binns' book entitled "The Central Railway of Peru and the Cerro de Pasco Railway" published by Trackside Publications of North Yorkshire, England in 1996. The car is marked as a "first class" car in the photo. When I rode the railroad in the late sixties, the first class car (not a Stillwell) was a former coach that had some seats with small tables and limited food service. The car still featured beautiful Pintsch gas light fixtures for illumination, but I do not know if they were operative at that time.

The cars were used on CdeP's daily passenger train, the Flamingo, between Cerro de Pasco and La Oroya. Incidentally La Oroya is at an altitude of 12,272 feet whereas Cerro de Pasco is at 13,720 feets. The highest point on the railroad was at Alacocha which was at 14,385 feet. I doubt that the cars deteriorated due to salt air at that altitude.

In those years the railroad still had some steam engines in storage following the recent invasion of EMD export units that were powering almost all of the CdeP trains. I remember my joy at hearing the unmistakable chant of a 567 EMD prime mover after listening exclusively to the Alco 251 power that reigned supreme on most of the other railroads in Peru at that time.