Spare steel is disappearing from the Sierra. Several bad order cars were scrapped along the line, including this rare tank car located at Chinese:
http://www.trainweb.org/foothill/images/srr607.jpg
According to John Barnhill from "Foothill Rails" this car was ex-Sierra water tankcar #607, ex-Sierra #106, nee Gulf Refining Co #168. I thought it was a good candidate for preservation, if someone had cared to take it on.

Nearly identical sister tank car Sierra #606 was built in 1907 as Gulf Refining #169, became Minerets & Western #99, acquired through foreclosure by Southern Pacific in 1935 and immediately sold to the Sierra Ry (soon to become the Sierra RR) as #606. It has been used as a fuel storage car at Jamestown for many years. The State recently moved a slightly larger former Southern Pacific tank car (SP 60167, ex 47703, built 1942 by General American Car, and twin to SP 60168 in use by CSRM in Sacrmento) to Jamestown to take over fuel service, so that Sierra #606 can be preserved as the rare piece that it is.

A couple of old Sierra tank cars still exist at Jamestown at the Railtown State Historic Park, languishing on the spur which is the remnant of the branchline to Angels Camp. I would not call them preserved, at this time.

The State also acquired three former Pickering Lumber tank cars in 1982 - the ones stored on the Angels Branch. These are also very early tank car designs: Standard Tank Car Co. 1915 built SHPX 7012, Pickering #608; American Car & Foundry 1904 built American Cotton Oil #854, Pickering #600; Harrisburg Car Company 1890 built for unknown, but probably Union Tank Lines, Pickering #603 mounted on a former Pickering wooden log car.

The first two Pickering cars (and Sierra #606 also) are in generally stable condition, little more deteriorated than when originally received. The wood running boards were gone from the Pickering cars before the State received them but they are well documented and eminently restorable in the future. The wooden log car under the Harrisburg tank is in deteriorating condition, and is being documented with a set of detailed scale drawings and photographs. A future goal is to put the tank on a reconstructed Harrisburg underframe, as documented in detail by original plans at the Smithsonian (see copies in John White's freight car book), and to reconstruct the Pickering flat as a log car.

No, the cars are not fully rstored, but they are not ignored either.