Bowling Green's Historic Railpark Moves Jim Crowe Combine

gnufe · **Posted:** Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:35 pm

For those of you that like wooden passenger cars, the Historic Railpark and Train Museum in Bowling Green, KY is moving L&N 109 a Jim Crowe combine to their museum. The car was moved from where it was restored to the museum site yesterday and will be set in place today. The car was last used on the Glasgow Railroad as their 109 and retired in the 50's. It sat on a siding in Glasgow until it was acquired by the Historic Railpark in 2011. They have photos posted on Facebook.

http://www.historicrailpark.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-RailPark-and-Train-Museum-Bowling-Green/141484559199188

I have no affiliation with the museum....

Stuart

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:45 pm

The restoration of this cas has been nothing but impressive! 109 sat for years on a dissused siding on the Glasgow Railroad. Threes had grown into one side of the car, to the point that there was virtually nothing left.

The real savior of this car is probably the fishbelly steel underframe and side sills that were added to the car by AC&F when the car was rebuilt into a Jim Crow car. This gave the car a stable foundation that allowed it to survie this long.

The group in Bowling Green should be commended. It started as a community effort in the 1990s to restore the L&N station in town, and has grown beyond that scope to include historic railroad displays. I went to college at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green and got to see the restoration unfold before my eyes up until graduation in 2002. It literally went from abandoned building, fenced in and boarded up, to a vital part of the revdevelopment of downtown. I've been back since and am impressed by the displays, the volunteer work and the vision. They seem to know what they are doing and know how to do it right.

While a similar L&N Jim Crow combine, number 665 rots at the Kentucky Railway Museum, it is comforting to see 109 in the process of being restored.

Here is a link to a photo the car before restoration:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1249331

This photo is of the car's "good" side, the other side had virtually nothing left.