This pic is from yesterday of the Erie gas electric at the ORM. Several years ago the URHS in New Jersey was trying to acquire it and move it to NJ. Whatever happened to that effort?

About 2 years ago it was listed as sold on the Ozark Mountain Railcar site. URHS says it isn't them. Your photo shows no obvious signs of any prep work to move it or indeed even anything to stabilize it. The front cab area has serious decay where the exhaust manifold goes through the roof and the reverse cab is missing the floor allowing critters in - simple things not addressed.

I would normally get more excited about the N&W 4-6-2 coupled ahead of it, but really, this car deserves life, too. Hope she gets the care she deserves.

An interesting point about this car is that it has a lot of Erie "Stillwell" features (such as the double-curved roof), which reminds me--we have a lot of Lackawanna MU trailers around, but I don't know how many Erie Stillwell coaches are still around. The Gettysburg used to have some, but I don't know what became of them.

A number of Stillwell coaches wound up on other roads, notably during the equipment moves and sales of the WW II era. This included some cars that wound up on the C&O (a personal interest of mine as a C&O fan and model enthusiast).

Anyway, Stillwell coaches were pretty common on the Erie at one time, and it would be interesting to know about any survivors that might still be around.

Rockford, MI has an ex-Cadillac & Lake City Rwy #44, exx-Chicago & Western Indiana, nee-Erie? Stillwell coach used as part of a book store, coupled to a caboose. The rail equipment is adjacent to the White Pine Trail, ex-MIGN, exx-PC, exxx-PRR, nee-GR&I.

Alex -

Another ex-C&LC, ex-C&WI (ex-Erie?) Stillwell in Michigan is on the roster of the Buckley Old Engine Show. As I recall, the Buckley car had its ends modified, but it still has the hard-to-miss Stillwell roof line.

The C&WI had 5 Stillwells in operation on their Chicago commuter service, all of which went to the Cadillac & Lake City. I am not sure if these two in Michigan are the only survivors.

Les

Whitewater Valley RR has what are probably the best preserved and used in regular service Erie Stillwells.... Hocking Valley had a couple, but they've fallen on hard times.

Another Indiana operation that used Stillwells at one time is the Indiana Railway Museum in French Lick. I think when they got their ex-Rock Island 2500 series Chicago-area commuter cars, the Stillwells were set aside. Last time I was down there, the cars were out on their dead line, vine covered and not looking very good.

Les

For those not familiar with what Erie Stillwells looked like, some sample images:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3124031

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1542385

There were a number of variations over the years. Some earlier cars had arched windows.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1117430

This one may have arched windows under that newer looking letterboard:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=903239

One of the interesting things about these cars are the different types of trucks they wore. They included what looks like a variation of a Taylor truck (under combine 826), a straight-equalizer cast truck (No. 2633, below), and variations on drop-equalizer trucks, including some that appear to have fabricated main frames (No. 463):

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1535107

The Erie doodlebugs did on occasion pull one or two Stillwells behind them. The 5012 was a regular on the NJ&NY RR, which is today's Pascack Valley Line on NJ Transit. The 5012 was also leased to the NYS&W to supplement their ACF Motor-railer cars.

Tim -

The stairs up to the baggage car door on #5012 in the above photo make me wonder if the museum allows visitors to tour the gas-electric? A bit strange if the car has actually been sold.

Les

If you ever want a "warts and all" look at any tourist operation or rail museum, for better or worse, Chris Guenzler's travelogues at Trainweb are a great place to start. Here, for example, is a very recent visit to the Ohio Railway Museum:

http://www.trainweb.org/chris/ohiotr.html

A listing of his recent trips:

http://www.trainweb.org/chris/ChrisTrips.html

Suffice it to say that if he visits a place, there will be no stone unturned, no tree not looked behind, and no shed unopened in his quest to document a place's holdings and operations. For better or worse, as I said. He's obviously pro-rail, but I don't think I've seen a more thorough examiner of rail preservation operations than him. If you want to see just what "the Joe Average family" sees when they wander your property, seek out whatever photo montage he has done of your place.

I didn't see a stitch of "worse" there, least, not from him. He really is gracious in how he covers these organizations.

You know guys -- what if ... there wasn't anything actually wrong with having deteriorated equipment. He certainly doesn't seem to think so. I'm not saying we should all abort our carbarn projects, but what if we took it in stride like that.

I visit a lot of rail museums too, and have the same "extremely thorough" collections of photos in my photo library... probably many of us do... but I don't publish them like he does. Simple thing he does, but he does it well.

Anybody know the status of the CNS&M interurban? Like the Erie 5012, it was sold by Ozark but is still there. I believe one of the electric locomotives was also sold or put up for sale through Ozark.

Robert -

Mr. Guenzler visited our museum earlier this month and did a rather extensive photo coverage of his visit. He did mislabel a few pieces of equipment, but overall, I think he did a pretty decent job. I would be glad to correct the misidentified equipment, but I couldn't figure out how to contact him, or if he can even change things once the photo report is in place. Overall, I guess I would give his report a "thumbs up".


Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

I haven't been to California Western country for a long time, but as I recall, CWRR (out of Ft. Bragg, between San Francisco and Eureka) had some Stilwells painted red with the Skunk logo on them.