Has anyone viewed the ex-L&N business car/PV at the Museum of the Adirondacks? Purportedly the car was used by Austin Corbin in the early part of the 20th century. Anyone have photos?

She's a beauty. I first saw her back in the '70's. Thankfully, she's been displayed indoors. She's billed as the "Oriental", private car used by August Belmont, of Interborough Rapid Transit fame, and is in Louisville & Nashville livery.

An interior shot is #3 in the slideshow gallery of the Adirondack Museums' Road and Rail permanent exhibit-- very impressive!

http://www.adkmuseum.org/exhibits_and_e ... ail/?id=6#

They have a few more interior shots on their Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=37 ... ate&m=text

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8720628@N0 ... otostream/

Museum also has a Brooklyn City Railroad horsecar (just a few miles from home!), and a Porter 0-4-0T from the Marion River Carry RR:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adkgrandtour/4639239156/

Thanks. You are right, she is a beauty! I couldn't remember if the car was Belmont's or Corbin's. Together, they both gained control of the L&N in the late 19th century. For many years, into the 1950s, the President's office of the L&N was located in New York. I'm sure this car, and others spent time in the NYC area to serve the President and other executives there.

What a beautiful interior. I am curious if the car's interior lasted like this until retirement, or if the car was "modernized" by the L&N, like they did so many of their office cars (paint).

I remember seeing an article about the L&N donating this car to the museum many, many years ago. In fact I think Beebe mentioned the donation in Manison on Rails which was published in 1959.

We are lucky that this car has been taken such good care of. Too bad more cars were not moved inside years ago.

Looks like it is the "Oriental" built for Austin Corbin in 1889, Lot 1703. This car reminds me of the IC 2 which now rests on a steel underframe, both were built as wood cars. They both survived to see continued service for 6o years or so.

T7

I have a copy of Mansions on Rails but have never sat down and read it.

The Oriental and IC2 both came from conservative railroads. When beyond their lives as of use for the upper-level officers, they survived for lower-level officials. I am just happily surprised that this car retained a nice interior, rather than the modernized interior of the IC2.

You need to read Mansions on Rails...if you are at all interested in the lore of the private railroad car you will enjoy it. Beebe is very funny in his descriptions and you have to remember that he knew a good many of these people he was writing about. They were his neighbors and drinking buddies during an era much removed.

I think IC modernized all of their cars when they were air conditioned...or thereabouts. If you can inspect one of the modernized cars you can see they they were very modern indeed. I am sure the IC brass liked them but the designs did not age well with the years. Someday we may stuble across the name of the fuss budget who is credited with the redesign on those cars.

There was a series of photographs on Ebay a while back that were taken in one of the IC cars when it was fresh from the carshop. They seemed to be very proud of the many modern features. I noticed that paintings of scenes from Paris adorned the bulkheads in their back-lit frames...perhaps upper management had lofty goals or were ashamed of their mid-western backgrounds.

T7

No I agree, the modernization was to make the cars up-to-date. Those designs don't age well, and we, as preservationists look at the whole approach differently. As tastes changed, so did the interior decoration of these cars. The dark wooden walls were painted over, etc.

Last year, I managed to get a tour of L&N 353 at the Historic Railpark and L&N Depot in Bowling Green, KY. This business car is a steel-framed wood car with steel sides, like the aforementioned Oriental and IC 2. Despite the car's age (1911 I believe) it has a 1950s interior. The furnishing and colors match L&N 363 a steel business car, now at KRM in New Haven, which was built after World War II from a heavyweight Pullman as the core.

All-in-all, I am amazed the Oriental and it's interior survived in a relatively un-molested state until it's donation in 1959.

The Beebe book is on the "to read" stack that grows with every trip to a railroad book store, or train show....