Nice to see RyPN contributor & CERM volunteer Rich Cizik quoted in that television peice. That was a short, sweet, sound bite that said it all, Rich. And congrats on saving this car!

Stephen

Good news! It is a sweet old P&R car. Glad to see CERM got it.

Just a coach, right? Any idea of builder and date? In the mainstream press, a car is a "diner" because it has tables in it NOW... totally missing whatever historic signifigance it might have.

Glad to see it's going to a good home. As steam operation in this country continues to constrict off the mainline to museum demonstration railways, we need more cars of this sort; less lightweights and commuter bi-levels.

She is a Philadelphia & Reading RR, class PAk Coach, #910, built by Osgood-Bradley & Company of Worcester, Ma, in May 1902. In December 1926 Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR bought her and her sister 940, they became #11 (910) & #12 (940). In 1960 she was bought by the Black River & Western RR and became #104. On August 26, 1970 she was moved to the Yankee Silversmith Inn, in Wallingford, Ct. Hopefully sometime this week she will travel to Willimantic. FYI: P&R 940 still exists and is at the Ct Electric Railway Association in Windsor, Ct (http://www.cera.org)

By the woodwork on the inside she was probably either a First class or Parlor car. The interior is all quarter sawn Oak with some nice veneer inlays.

The fun part, when she gets to Willimantic, will be replacing the sidewall trusswork that was removed when they made the passageway to connect it to the inn.

As I write this I just realized that out of the 11 pieces of rolling stock we have, she will be the 5th O-B car in the museum's collection, 3 heavys, and 2 light. NYNH&H 4414 wooden Coach (Built 1907), NYNH&H 3068 wooden Horse & Baggage car (Built Oct 1906), NYNH&H 8673 & 8695 steel Commuter Coach (Built 1947/1948 [built by Pullman at the former O-B factory]) & P&R 910 Coach. Of all our wooden cars (+CVRy 4029 Caboose [Built 1912]) she is the only one that did not get upgraded with a steel frame, yet she was in revenue service the longest & latest.

Regards,

Rich Cizik
MoW Foreman
Blacksmith Shop Co-Head
Ct Eastern RR Museum
Willimantic, Ct 06226
http://www.cteastrrmuseum.org

It is currently in the collection at the Connecticut Electric Railway Association (CT Trolley Museum) and it is in East Windsor, CT. The website is http://www.ct-trolley.org.

Rich,

I may be dead wrong on this, but did not the Osgood-Bradley Company end up as part of the Pullman Corporation?

If so the Pullman Library at Illinois Railway Museum may have some of the drawings of the car.

Ted Anderson the hard working archivist there just sent us some drawings for a Baker & Haskell caboose that we have in the collection.

There is a lot more to the Pullman Library than just Pullman cars!

Ted Miles

I have been working with Ted on a few cars, but unfortunately most of the O-B drawings for the wooden cars never made it to the archive. Either they got tossed by O-B or Pullman, or someone else got their hands on them before IRM.

Rich C.

I need to get down there to take back the Habichi and Trigs you guys took.