Murder mystery on Illinois Central Business Car 2 ? ( you decide )

Although for a moment this perhaps falls more under "Railroad History" then "Railroad Preservation", however allowed under the guidelines, ( I would suspect ), I thought others would find this as interesting as I did..... It involves Illinois Central Business Car # 2.... A Pullman Company built wooden business car built in 1883, and rebuilt in 1929 with steel side sheets, air conditioning etc etc... It later was upgraded again in the mid 1950's with a more modern interior before being taken off the Illinois Central Roster in the 1970's... Anyway with the history out of the way, I had an opportunity recently to take a look at the car as it has been offered for sale, and my thought was the Illinois Central had a roster of an interesting business cars....

The car is located outside of the Chicago area, and after spending an hour taking a look at the interior and exterior of the car, I thought some members of this forum, might find this piece of history interesting.... On the bulkhead wall inside IC # 2, was an illuminated back lit photograph ( from what I understand, some other IC cars had this feature ) What remained of the photograph appeared to be a scene of the Chicago skyline. although the glass was broken and the photograph mostly destroyed ... However perhaps at least equally as interesting as the modernization of the car, was the note that was stuck inside the illuminated box ... Inside the box was a worn label, from the Illinois Central Office of the President, 135 East Eleventh Place Chicago Il.... Written on the label, was the following.... "TO: Whom ever finds this... A man is trying to kill me Please help he's here in this train.... die 9/6/61....

So, in a break from normal preservation minded subjects, here is a bit of railroad ( and Illinois Central RR ) history..... a note left inside a Illinois Central business car. perhaps 49 years ago, on Office of the President stationary , indicating a man was attempting to kill the writer ?....

Now, for the skeptics, I didn't write the note, and only moved it to get the attached photograph...

So no matter if there is truth to this, or a joke 49 years ago, it is an interesting tale.... along the Mainline of Mid America.....


Dean Levin

"What we call a weed is in fact merely a plant growing where we do not want it " . E.J. Salisbury, 1935

Sometimes it's fascinating to see what's found in old equipment. There's really no way to find out if the note is real or a joke. It may not have come from a member of the Office of the president either, that may have been just a notepad left laying around that was picked up by someone else. Intriguing and still part of the history of that car.

Are there trucks available for that car? The interior looks to be in great shape. Hopefully it gets a new owner that will redo the exterior, I like that brown and orange IC scheme they had for thier cars.

Yes, the original trucks are there. I know the gentlemen that moved the trucks for the owner. They couldn't move the car because of its weight and another company did that. They then moved the trucks to the site where IC #2 is located, but the owner never put the trucks back under the car.

Les

Les and MEC557....

Here are a few photographs of the bolted pedestal trucks for IC 2 ...

Dean

Was that written by a pen that existed back then? And why does DIE and the date look different?

I don't know how secure the car is at its current location but I used to visit it and the other cars and locomotive(s) at the old site. Not being a vandal I "took only photographs and left only footprints" but I do recall the last time I saw the car at the old location it was open (presumably forced open by vandals) and for the first and only time I was able to do a quick walk through. I presume modern vandals are the source of the note.

I will leave it to someone else to discuss whether handwriting / printing styles have changed over the years.

I am very interested in what happens with the car. I once posted some pictures and had an inquiry from a small railroad interested in buying it but I was unable to find anyone around over there to pass their inquiry to. One old gentleman denied being the owner but refused to accept the note I'd printed out. But that was before I knew it was a wood-bodied car and not suitable for any real service.

Steve

sounds like the "Help I am trapped in a Fortune Cookie factory!!" sounds a bit of a childish prank. I work trucks at my job and these handwritten jokes are often graffitied and sometimes NSFW all over the place by anonymous pranksters.

So we have a restroom graffiti prankster here it seems....

one person could write the help message, someone else saw the same note and added the die (getting the joke and adding to it) and we the digging archeololigists
stumble on some pranksters who if they get to read this have the last laff.


that paper actually seems to be a mailing label, I am sure the president or secretary or whomever would have lots of memo writing, its a convenient sticky, slap it on a business sized envelope, so I think the writer didnt know the purpose of the paper and had some fun..."hey just wait till someone finds this one..." 8-D

Wow...the skeptics really came out of the woodwork here. And everybody seems to be a handwriting and logistics expert. What do we make of that???

I think there are a lot of mysteries here...like: who ever thought those drapes looked good in that car? Why was that car placed on cribbing that is so high? Can a car that long really have been made in 1879?

I think that car would make a great place to escape the coming zombie apocalypse...just get in there and pull up the ladder. Oh wait...they are pushing the cribbing over...No...No...Nooooooo!!!!

On a side note about IC 2 ( not involving the unusual note ), I have seen numerous Illinois Central business cars that had a shower head added in the vestibule to allow the crew to have a shower ... Interesting that the crew would have to shower virtually outside of the heated areas and in theory open in the vestibule... The picture provided, shows the shower head, and the wood construction of IC 2..... The shower head is located just inside the side door as shown in the photograph

I have seen this exact same installation in other IC business cars..... although a ceiling existed and the shower head appeared just below a steel ceiling ( or slightly recessed in the ceiling ) ...

Interesting bit of Illinois Central history..... Don't know of any other railroad that made their vestibules into showers... ?

Notes in light boxes, showers in vestibules, hand writing experts ( and T7, you don't like the window treatments .... ? ) Can't beat that ?

Dean Levin

This car was the subject of my very first web page back in 1995 when "disappeared" from the original location. As noted, at first the trucks were left behind. The page was up until a couple years ago when that web service was discontinued. I've since resurrected it and my other old pages.

http://steve.filmteknik.com/iccar.html

Steve

Dean -

Your note (and photo) about shower heads in the vestibule of IC #2, and other Illinois Central business cars, is interesting. This might make the car more attractive to some museum! Imagine a 90 degree plus day and passengers on the old museum train are very uncomfortable. No air conditioning on museum cars after all! But wait, they can always go back to the diner and stick their head under the shower head with the cool water! The Chicago White Sox have had a shower head out in the bleachers for years and it has proven quite popular amongst some fans. I can see the museum brochure now: SHOWERS AVAILABLE ON ALL SUMMER TRAINS! How much were they asking for IC #2 again?

Les

I always found it interesting that there is NO floor drain for these IC showers...the water must have pooled up and ran off the floor by the end door. The provisions doors had a lower sill so it had to drain off another way. This of course meant even more work for the steward and cook...they had to mop out the floor when they were finished.

I would like to have been a bug on the wall when the mechanical department made the decision to move the showers outside. Imagine?

T7

For those that might find this shower in the vestibule discussion interesting..... here is the application in Illinois Central 16, renumbered to # 1 and ending its service life as IC # 9 ( and ICG # 9 ) Here are a few photographs showing the application of a shower in the vestibule in a more modern ( 1916) Pullman built car....Interesting this idea was used on a railroad that served a cold winter environment.. Not sure where the shower controls are located for this application, as they were not immediately obvious..... nor like T7 indicated, there was no obvious sign of a drain....

Interesting how in IC 9, the shower head was recessed in the vestibule ceiling...... It doesn't solve the murder mystery ( or lack of ), but it does shed light into an interest aspect of IC business car operations


Dean Levin

For those showers to work where would the water tank be located? Under the car and pumped up or above the ceiling and run off gravity?


Maybe the shower goes hand in hand with the murder mystery......they just might needed a place to clean up afterward :P

I saw the valve on one of these cars...it was right there on the platform, but overhead. Also notice that there are no drapes or blinds on the vestibule window. I am sure there was a frosted glass in there...or maybe not. The water came from the same system as used for the rest of the car. Early cars had a hand-pump water raising system when not on train air. Later cars had a small DC powered air comprressor...on IC cars it was located in one of the upper pantry cabinets.

These could be a great place to wash off after battling zombies all day...as long as you kept the back door shut so they couldn't get in while you were at your most vulnerable.

These are the valves for the shower on the above mentioned IC car. They were located just inside the hallway in the utility locker along with the car heater. Not very easy to get to. You can read "SHOWER COLD" on the silver tag.