From the wreckage of the Knox and Kane, the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum, on Long Island, has purchased one of the K&K "ping-pong" coaches from the scrapper. The coach is said to be in near LIRR condition, excellent condition, and restorable for preservation. "Pings" were notorious for corrosion damage, and while many were sold to tourist railroads or saved as display items, almost all have dissolved into dust since 1970. This is a rare find. Plans are to move the coach to the museum location in Oyster Bay, sometime in the spring of 2009.
OBRM is custodian of G5s, #35, which will eventually be rebuilt and restored for operation.

Richard,

Oyster Bay was only a few stations from where I grew up on the Long Island Rail Road. i have been there many times.

They have put up a newly designed web site which features the artist conception of the future museum in the historic Oyster Bay depot.

Receny pictures show it cleaned up with a new roof. I am glad to see it without all that blue paint and without the ads all over it.

Ted Miles

[quote="Richard Glueck"]From the wreckage of the Knox and Kane, the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum, on Long Island, has purchased one of the K&K "ping-pong" coaches from the scrapper.

Do you have the car number? Just trying to keep track of ex-SF equipment...

Romi Romano

Romi,
The car is 7433. Any information on the car from its post LIRR days would be greatly appreciated.

Roger Hahn
Oyster Bay Railroad Museum

I've had a request for information regarding the scrapper of the P54's from Knox & Kane. I have no information, but please contact Mr. Hahn, or the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum, and I'm certain they will be able to direct you.

[quote="R. Hahn"]Romi,
The car is 7433. Any information on the car from its post LIRR days would be greatly appreciated.

LIRR 7433 was purchased by the Steamtown Foundation in 1975 (I think), with possibly 20 other P54's. My "Steamtown News" from the era is buried. No. 7433 was used in the 1976 Vermont Bicentennial Steam Expedition, along with "a few" other cars.

In 1982 the 7433 was refurbished at Riverside (Bellows Falls) Vermont for excursion service. I have no information on the car from the closing date of Steamtown Vermont in the fall of 1983 until your purchase of it.

Romi Romano

Its amazing what you can find on the internet when you know a few places to look!
I found a few interesting photos of sister car 7002.
Up at Bellows Falls:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=528578

I thought it came down to Scranton, but didn't realize this!
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/dlw7002.jpg

I'm not sure, but I think the P-54s were deemed surplus and put up for sale. I remember hearing 2 weren't sold and placed "out back" where they were hard to see. I think they were since cut up. 7016, 7092 are the numbers I have for them.

The months of planning and a few days of hard work and an iconic symbol of the Long Island Rail Road has returned home.

The car was prepped in Marienville, Pa Sunday, loaded Monday and unloaded in the yard of the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum on Wednesday.

We are quite pleased to have an example of this once ubiquitous coach preserved on Long Island.

It's nice to see that P-54 back on the Island. Was that a Silk Road move? Any permitting problems in NY State? And, could the approximate cost of the move be revealed, either on this board or by PM?

Thanks,

Howard P.
Weekend Chief, NY

Neat-O

I remmeber those LIRR cars at Steamtown. One served as a lunch counter on the train and later at the loading site. Those were good times.

If I recall correctly, two or three LIRR cars from the Steamtown collection went to RMDI in Pittston maybe 7 years ago. They may still be there.... A few of us had dreams of putting them together with a LIRR High Hood C-420 on our property, but it never came to pass.

Dave

A side note on the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum (formerly "Friends of #35"). The Museum as a small corner of land at the end of the Oyster Bay yard. They have a nice collection of representative LIRR equipment, some of it store off site, but the point is, they only acquire what they can handle and repair. Much still needs to be given heavy attention, but the work gets done and done well. The organization, like most, needs a shelter, but we should watch them with regularity. Incidentally, they have a $500,000 grant to begin rebuilding G5s #35, sister to the RMLI G5s #39 being worked on at Strasburg .

Howard,
Yes, Silk Road did the move. They performed quite well considering that the loading situation was certainly not ideal, with uneven loose ballast and not much room on one side of the tracks. They also dealt with the permitting so I can't say exactly what was involved. I do know that the price for the move nearly doubled over the initial estimates when it was realized that it had to go out on the island.

Roger

I'm not familiar with Long Island RR color schemes, but the rescued car paint job looks more like South Shore or Milwaukee than any pictures I've seen of LIRR. No matter what color it is, getting it back to Long Island is a big accomplishment.

What you are seeing is the Knox & Kane paint scheme. On the Long Island, these cars wore one of three schemes. First, tuscan red with gold lettering, ala' PRR, the parent road. This was the color scheme for the bulk of the steam years. Second, Light gray with a lighter gray, almost aluminum, roof. this was the "modernization" scheme around 1950, to coincide with the arrival of F-M C-Liners in Tichy paint. Last, dark gray with dark gray roof and white, block lettering, plus a "Dashing Dan" herald, which was easier to maintain, and the scheme in which they ended the service years. This particular cars in in remarkable shape, seeing that almost none remain which haven't flaked to pieces. However OBRM chooses to paint it, it will be historically accurate. These guys are good.

folks,

I was just back on Long Island; but I found out too late that the museum is only open on the weekends , when I could not visit. I saw the Oyster Bar station with a new roof and a note that the building is on the National Register. i think the museum is going to be a happening place in the next few years.

Ted Miles