That second pic almost makes me think those look like the end frames of seats on an open car. But in MONTANA??

Too bad it is so heavily modified.

If it is going to be a guest house, I wonder what kind of trucks it might have, and if those might be sold separately?

Bob Kutella

I think this is the car body pictured on the home page of the American Chicken Coop Project maintained by the late Ben Minnich. The caption describes an open car body in Butte. If that is the case, the carpernter has worked wonders!

Butte
Car 42
Open Bench
Builder ?
Body Only/Very poor
Location: Dillon
Status: Restoration failed as of Jul-96



Wesley

A quick review of Interurbans No. 50 reveals the following on Butte No. 12.

No. 12 was of unknown manufacture. (I wonder if there would some evidence of the builder on wear plates or such on No. 12). Roster info in Int. Spec. 50 states that No. 12, and two other similar cars, were on the property by 1900. Butte Electric Rwy was very fond of open cars and had quite a number of them even after the system went to one-man operation in 1924. Apparently a popular destination for the citizens of Butte was Columbia Gardens and in clement weather hoards would go out there. What better type of car to swallow crowds than the open type?

Butte liked open cars so much that they ordered four opens from Niles in 1916, arguably one of the last orders of this type of car for domestic use. The company actually modified two of their open cars for use in winter as helpers to keep flangeways open and to help the plows and sweepers go up a few steep inclines when snow fell. See page 74 for a photo taken in November of 1921 of one of the opens assisting a snow plow.

No. 12 was on the roster when the Butte system was abandoned in 1937. There are several photos of No. 12 on pages 49 and 50 of Interurbans Special No. 50.

Bob mentioned trucks. I would guess that when this car was disposed of that the trucks and other electro/mechanical "stuff" was scrapped. I noticed in the newspaper's article that the car now appears to be sitting on freight cars trucks.