I'll grant you that may be normal in the context of the EBT.... but with this austute group as the knowlege base.. is there another preserved RAILROAD OWNED (not REA Express) freight delivery truck anywhere in the US? Let alone on the same site, in the same garage, as it's been since it was purchased? Lettered for the railroad?

Of the possible thousands and thousands .... are there any others??

Just saying, hey, we focus on the trains, but only the modelers seem to remember that most progressive railroads had piggyback trailers and tractors lettered for the railroad at least up to the 70's. Well, yeah...but are there any left? I'm perfectly happy to be proved wrong. Just think about that.

It's not in railroad preservation, but I did notice a T&P Ry COE (Cab Over Engine) freight express truck in Cisco, Texas at a collector car lot the past month or so. I'm pretty sure the diamond on the freight box is a faded T&P logo.

Not necessarily relevant to the question, but I've been meaning to mention it and your post brought it to the forefront of my thoughts.

Folks,

I am not clear is this stream is looking for old or just silly. But for the United States certinly the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum which preserves artifacts from the oldest railroad in the United States comes to mind.

Another really old steam loco built in the US is on display in Havanna, Cuba. From the 1850s is was the first tailroad locomotive in Cuba. Unlike the "General" she is very original or so says John H. White.

And as the first railroads were in England (coal mines) so the National Railway Museum at York, England would have to be the place. i think they have borrowed a colliery engine that was long displayed at the Science Museum in London. It is claimed by Guinness to the be the oldest steam railroad locomotive.

The Locomotion (passenger locomotive) was long displayed at Darlington but likewise may have been moved to York. Or the locomotive they display may be one of several replicas that esists. I saw one of them running at the first Railfair in Sacramento.

Ted Miles

The guilty party captured on film!

Not only did they have a truck, they had several trucks AND buses as part of their East Broad Top Transit Company subsidiary which operated "The Pioneer Route" bus line and road freight. When the first bus garage burned down (along with the second Paint Shop) in 1933 and took their first fleet with it, they bought new ones. Eventually the transit company was sold to Trailways and none of those vehicles survive as far as is known, but there are three replicas (one truck and two buses) that occasionally make it the Fall Spectacular. Delivery truck #4 (currently at the railroad) postdates the EBTTCo but served the same purpose.

One of those cameras was alleged to have been used to take some of the photos used in Rainey & Kyper's EBT book. The other was definitely used to take photos used in Hilton's Ma & Pa book. The tripods came from the latter.

Authentic enough for you?

Maybe it's not too odd, but I'll list it anyhow. Right now in my office I have a piece of tar paper "stored for preservation" that was uncovered by one of our directors. It is the original shipping label for one of the rolls of tar paper used on Grasselli Tower. It was quite a find, as we now know where the tar paper was shipped to at the NYC, who the storekeeper was when it was ordered, etc. Who knew that a simple piece of tar paper could reveal so much information!

Well, Tyburn Railroad's freight delivery tractors and trailers are lettered for the railroad. I don't know if they qualify
as "preserved", although they have been and are well maintained, on the same site. However, TYBR never had a garage
for them. Since we forgot to withdraw or cancel our participation in Delivery Charges as every other railroad in the country
seems to have done, we still have that kind of business, and therefore, still use the highway vehicles. Of course, it is
necessary to maintain, rebuild, and eventually replace them with newer used models. The customers won't pay
high enough rates to justify new equipment.
By the way, these are not "freight train substitution" trucks like Boston & Maine Transportation and other examples mentioned
previously probably were. Rather, they really are "freight delivery trucks", what replaced the horse drawn drays for delivering
freight, usually Less Than Carload, that arrived at the railroad station on rates that included pick up or delivery.
We have just put a small truck, not tractor, in service for the smaller LCL shipments that are starting to become popular in
this terrible economy. It is not yet lettered.

As far as trailers with the railroad name still on them, there are (I believe) still a couple with "ET&WNC" on them. A recent discussion about them was on the ET&WNC discussion board.

Another oddity preserved: When the old carbon tetrachloride fire extinguisher on the EBT M-1 was replaced with a new modern fire extinguisher, it was going to be discarded in the trash. I rescued it, and will return it when we can preserve it on board without running the risk of someone trying to use it in an emergency!

Phil

Well, there is the solid-rubber-tired crane truck used to scrap the old Key System, known as the Doane. 50 years ago it was pulled into a corner of a WRM building and the boom was swung 'round to make room. Not sure how we're going to ever get it out... boom engine doesn't run anymore.

Just a thought...there are two restored "Doane" trucks in the bay area...I believe the owner of Cunha Trucking in Hayward has/had them. I believe they were dock trucks originally in SF. Maybe he can give some insight? This was some years ago, but I did see them both running (1978 - 1982?). Both had been restored from the ground up.

A new nominee, folks--though technically not a "railway item" in the strictest sense:

I bring to you the 1900 Trans-Siberian Railway Egg!

http://www.mieks.com/faberge-en/1900-Trans-Siberian-Railway-Egg.htm

I just retruned from Europe where the Technical Museum in Berlin has a pair of wooden mine cars from the 1500s, with spool shaped wheels that run on logs shaped into wooden rails, including a switch in the exhibit. Next to it is an iron English tramroad car with flangeless wheels and "L" shaped track from the mid 1700s. At the National Railway Museum in York, England, they have a 1797 iron car from the Peak Forest Tramway, with similar track. Outside is a section of the Gaunless Bridge, completed in 1823, with a coal car from circa 1826 on it. The oldest locomotive preserved in Britain is the 1813 "Puffing Billy," in the Science Museum in London. All of these are some sort of railway item, depending on how you define "railway."

If I might remind everyone, this thread (according to the title) is for ODD (unusual, strange, out-of-the-ordinary, etc.) items, _not_ OLD. We seem to be tending to go astray on this one.



I've got a copy of an old Climax catalog that shows a picture of a Climax engine with flanged wheels with cleats running on log rails. The logs were not shaped in any particular way as far as I can tell - just cut down and placed at more or less an even gauge. In the picture, the engine was pulling flat cars with logs on them, so they must have made either matching trucks or full cars, and IIRC those wheels were actually a standard option for the Climax engines in that catalog (late 1800's).

Standard in the "available for any of our locomotives" sense, not the "included by default" sense.