I found this Barney & Smith car on Ebay, thought I'd post, not many of these left.
M.Nix



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewItem&item=733049441
2rivers@upstel.com

> I found this Barney & Smith car on Ebay,
> thought I'd post, not many of these left.
> M.Nix

Dang, what a car. Any body know her history? It would be a shame to see it scrapped.

Here's the description from the eBay page:

This is your chance to save this old railroad car from being dismantled for parts. It is a genuine Barney & Smith wooden passenger train car from around the 1890's. It has been sitting on a farm in Northeastern Iowa for about 80 years. It had a steel roof over it so the car itself is in fairly good shape. The car measures 67 feet long and has dark green slag glass above the windows and inlaid mahogany woodwork. The inside has been painted in some areas. Please call 319-234-5678 if you have questions. This is being sold with no reserve with a buy it now for $2,500.00. This car must be moved by the new owner within approx. 30 - 45 days. If a buyer cannot be located we will be forced to salvage what we can and destroy the rest. This is a great restorable car it needs trucks under it and plenty of TLC but it would be worth it!! Good luck!!



Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

It looks like a car with lots of potential for restoration. One thing that gives me pause is the angle of the photos; it seems to focus on the good points (and perhaps avoiding some serious problem areas). That said, I think its worth a serious look by a qualified organization with the means to restore it (the question is does anyone have the means and the will to do it, transportation alone is a big cost).IMHO the owner would have been smarter to shop around for a good place to donate the car for a tax write off; with the woodwork and overall historic nature of the car I'd bet a broker would certify its value at twice the asking price.

> It looks like a car with lots of potential
> for restoration. One thing that gives me
> pause is the angle of the photos; it seems
> to focus on the good points (and perhaps
> avoiding some serious problem areas). That
> said, I think its worth a serious look by a
> qualified organization with the means to
> restore it (the question is does anyone have
> the means and the will to do it,
> transportation alone is a big cost).IMHO the
> owner would have been smarter to shop around
> for a good place to donate the car for a tax
> write off; with the woodwork and overall
> historic nature of the car I'd bet a broker
> would certify its value at twice the asking
> price.

I have no idea about its history. But I'll take a shot in the dark. I think it might be a Soo Line car. This is based on the little paint left on it is Maroon (Soo Line painted all cars maroon as CPR did in those day), this is on the assumption the paint is origional.

Soo Line's cars of this era were all purchased from Barney and Smith. Windows look similar to other Soo Line cars of this era. Also, it isn't far reach to say that the owner who purchase it from a railroad could have gotten it off of Soo scrap lines in Wisconsin and Chicago.

> I found this Barney & Smith car on Ebay,
> thought I'd post, not many of these left.
> M.Nix

Car's location is Waterloo. (Iowa- I don' think there's a 'Waterloo' in Illinois near Chicago.)
I lived in Waterloo in the '70s but I don't remember seeing this car. Did Soo Line get into Iowa?

davew833@yahoo.com

There are groups that do have the capability to preserve the car. The key though is for one of those groups (ie. IRM) to acquire the car and quickly remove it to a restoration facility before it can be further damaged by weather or destroyed by fire. There were at least two wooden coaches of Civil War and post-Civil War era that survived well into the 20th century before being lost in fires. The first was the Lincoln Funeral Car which was lost in the 1930's to a brush fire in Nebraska. The second car was a 1870's Western and Atlantic Railroad coach which was lost to a fire of unknown origin in late 1962 or early 1963. Fortunately, both cars were well documented for historical purposes before they were lost. A model of the W & A car is displayed at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, MO.

awalker2002@comcast.net