The Baltimore Streetcar Museum is restoring two streetcars from the late 1800's (1894 rebuild and 1898). Both cars had "Wilton Carpet" for the seat coverings. One car had a bright red color fabric, while the other one had a blue fabric. These cars are also single-truck cars, so the total linear quantity required is about 65 feet for the blue and 90 feet for the red. These lengths make it difficult to find an interested vendor.

After some research on the internet, Wilton carpet is still made in England. Some of the museums in the UK also call the seat fabric as "moquette".

The question I have is this: What have other museums in the US used as the carpet/plush/moquette fabric for seat coverings in late 19th-century railway or street railway equipment?

Thanks,
Dave Crow

Hi Dave:

Back in the 1980s I believe IRM had a special order of green and gold plush made to use in chicago el cars and northshore cars. I know other museums bought into the order.

I think you could look into the antique car people. I think Bill Hirsch sells broad cloth. He can be found online or in Hemmings.

Dear Dave:
Valley Railroad has obtained a commercial plush material from:
Joe Brinkmeyer, KM Fabric, Inc. 2 Waco St. Greenville, SC 29611
Over the years we have bought their pattern 505 and pattern 808 in custom colors. In 2005, the price was $21.00/yard (54 inches wide) with a 100 yard minimum.
Nice outfit to do business with, good color matches and really long wearing fabric.
Good luck,
J.David

Have you tried this company:

http://www.holdsworth.co.uk/



I haven't dealt with them, I'm only familiar with them from ads in trade magazines and also they are listed in my railroad links directory. They have a large selection, and they specialize in transit fabrics, so the material is designed for that type of service.

Of course being a commercial supplier they may be more expensive than you'd like, I honestly have no idea what they charge etc. But it would possibly be at least worth an inquiry.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for suggesting John Holdsworth; however, I had found them last year or so when I did a search for Wilton carpet manufacturers and vendors. We do not have photos with enough resolution to accurately determine patterns in the fabric so we planned to use a solid color fabric.

Based on suggestions from Chris and J. David, I contacted Bill Hirsch and he tells me the fabric is more likely described as "wool velvet" instead of Wilton carpet. I will send him a sample of the fabric so he can tell me which of his materials is the closest match.

As I learn more, I will make sure I keep the list updated.

Thanks again,
Dave Crow

You're welcome, I thought maybe you had found them, but since they seem to have such a good selection I thought I'd pass the info along just in case. As you probably know, they also do solid colors, but I don't know if they'd do anything that would qualify as "plush" or not.

Did you happen to talk to them about pricing at all? If so, do they seem like they are a viable resource for railway preservation? Sometimes when I find something that I think will work once I see the pricing it ends up being ruled out simply based on the expense.

I don't think I asked about pricing, especially since I couldn't seem to find solid colors on their site; many of the railway fabrics they show actually do have modern patterns. Also, several companies had minimum orders of 100 yards - a lot more than I would need for any one specific 1890's era streetcar!

Another option is to Google search "moquette" which is what the folks at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway call the fabric on their passenger seats. Several of the moquette vendors do sell into the US, but the price tends to be about L35 or so. One company had the ideal fabric, but when I contacted them, they had just stopped making that material with in the past several weeks - dang.

And so the search continues...