Heck over the summer it was just a hair above $12,000 to move the Coach from Wallingford to Willimantic (in state, 30-45 minute drive), but that included two cranes at both ends at good rates, thanks to an associate of a friend of the museum for one end and an honest company, that after ignored the equipment request from both us and the trucking company (30' spreader beam) added the second crane for free. Probably the move would have totaled closer to $14,000 otherwise.

A few years ago, we were offered the CV coach in Davisville, RI and looked into moving her, which I think is the one we are talking about.

Biggest hurdles were that she was on the wrong side of Amtrak. Supposedly her body was too heavy to go over the bridges that cross Amtrak and she was too tall & long to go under the tracks (road dips under the Northeast Corridor). We also looked into putting her onto one of those flatcars designed to carry damaged coaches, but her roof would have come too close to the catenary for Amtrak to allow. I think we had found another way to bring her from there to the museum but it worked out to around $25-$30,000, including (2) cranes at each end. (I was not involved in the quote gathering, and I am just remembering this info from the report given when we had to make the final accept or decline on the donation of the car).

IIRC at the end of the tracks where she was stored, or at the end of a track Seaview was willing to switch her to, was a large yacht marina with a big travel-all crane. Not sure if it could have handled the weight of the coach body or if the winches could have been moved out far enough to pick up the coach body safely. But the idea was floated (no pun intended) about barging her to New London or Norwich where the friction bearings would not have been as much of an issue, no interchange needed, assuming we could convince NECR or P&W to move her over the rails.

Rich Cizik
MoW Foreman
Blacksmith Shop Co-Head
Ex P&R 910 Move Coordinator
Ct Eastern RR Museum
Willimantic, Ct 06226
www.cteastrrmuseum.org

We moved a PS-1, 40' boxcar 100 miles and it ran 12K. We used a single equipment mover who used a forklift (not their biggest one) at both ends. We have given up on acquiring a passenger car since that would require a house mover and thier rates start at 20K and go up from there.

Later!
Mr. Ed