I was recently contacted by a fellow rail preservationist over in Italy who is part of an organization which is attempting to restore a 1906 railcar that was originally produced from the American Car & Foundry.

He is attempting to procure copies of the drawings for this type of railcar.

Does anyone happen to know where the drawings for the AC&F are kept nowadays? Are they all together and easily accessible, or have they been spread around over the years. Who can I go about contacting to find out more?

As follows is a photograph of the railcar they are restoring.




Contact information for Mr. Coa is available upon request. The email that he wrote is as follows:

What exists of the ACF drawings is at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, with their lot records and photos at the Barriger RR Library a the University of MO - St. Louis. Very few drawings exist before about 1925, althought there are a few scattered ones before this date. The person to contact is Nick Ohlman at 314-965-7998. You will need the name of the original purchasing railroad and date of construction for them to search with. The odds are that there isn't anything. I'm not sure on the stuff at the Barriger. Contact there is Greg Ames through their web site. He might have some photos if you are fortunate. Good luck!

Ron,

Thank you for the reply. I'll be sure to give Nick a call as soon as I find out more information. Here's to hoping that something still exists.

I wonder what the odds might be of a similar car being preserved over here in America. If the blueprints don't exist we may be able to create new ones from existing stock.

Regards,

David

You might also want to contact the Delaware State Archives. AC&F bought Jackson & Sharp in Wilmington, Delaware sometime around 1900.

The WW&F in Maine purchased their early passenger equipment from J&S and the later stuff came from the same plant but was labeled as AC&F.

I was able to get builders photos as well as some of the framing diagrams for the WW&F cars from the Delaware archives.

Dave Crow

I have blue prints for one of the CNJ Blue Comet's coaches, if they might be close, I could get it copied.

Len.

But now, who will tell us how an ACF (coach? office car?) got to Cagliari? (I knew that gas railcar that was originally pictured weren't no ACF.) Could this be a dynamometer car?

- Aarne Frobom

Boat, probably.

Dave

Here is the link for the ACF material at Barringer National Railroad Library at the St. Louis Mercantile Library:
The ACF Industries Archival Collection

This is the link to the St. Louis Mercantile Library home page:
St. Louis Mercantile Library

Dave,

I appreciate the humor that you are conveying
about the car.

But the term boat is for harbor craft such as ferry boats, tug boats etc.

The Navy has their own terms as in calling submarines boats, even though they are 300 feet long! It came from the times when their submarines were 40 feet long and did not leave the harbor.

Ships are used to carry locomotives and rail cars across the Atlantic Ocean. And a lot of them there were! For example the Baldwin Locomotive Company did quite an export business to Central and South America for example.

Not to mention your own finely preserved railroad car ferry, Ted. Don't be so modest......it is truly well worth seeing.

dave