Here is a picture of Long Island Coach 2972 fresh out of the shop.
The interior was reworked last year with a new floor, seats reupholstered, etc.
Now it has just rolled out after having several mechanical issues repaired, some exterior body work, vestibules repaired, and new paint job.

That's a nice paint job, especially considering it is a high capacity commuter car. Is it privately owned or owned by Heart of Dixie?

I had to do a search on the net to find out where the car is located:

It is Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum located just south of Birmingham in Calera, Alabama.

see: Long Island 2972

also see:Heart of Dixie RR Museum

Nice job! Appears to be the only one of this common (on current-day tourist/excursion/museum railroads) class of car to be restored as it originally looked in 1955.

Howard P.

The car is owned by the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. The interior was refurbished last year with new floor, electrical repairs, and new upholstery.
The seats were reupholstered by inmates at the State Prison Vocational School's Upholstery shop.
Here's a shot of the interior decorated for Christmas last year shortly after the interior was finished.

Bill

Bill -

The boys down there at HOD have done a beautiful job with LIRR 2972. You deserve to be congratulated. HVRM however, also has one of the cars, LIRR #2937. I tried to find a photo of the complete car, but the best I could do is this shot taken by Tom Travis, one of our members, as the car crossed Mulberry Street last year on one of our Santa trains.

Les

That makes two of these Pullman P72's, once a mainstay of the transition era fleet, to be properly restored, at least as far as the outsides go. They are beautiful.

FWIW, these cars locked couplers with G5s ten-wheelers for a short time, then Fairbanks-Morse C-liners and H16-44's, ALCO RS1's, RS2's, and RS3's, and of course, the ALCO C420's.

As a solid LIRR fan, it is warming to see some of our historical equipment getting restored to this condition.

Thanks HVRM and HOD!

Dick -

For the record, ex-LIRR Alco RS-1 #467 is also at HVRM. The unit is privately owned, and currently unrestored. The owner also has LIRR caboose number 58 at the museum, which he uses for sleeping space when he comes to work on the RS-1.

As I was telling Bill at HOD, it's rather ironic that the two best restored LIRR P72 coaches reside in places far from Long Island.

Les

I think its safe to say that car has not looked that good in a very long time. Congratulations on a job well done!

Can anyone explain to me the red circle logo with yellow number on the end of the car? Have never understood this....

ATK -

They way it was explained to me is that Long Island commuters long complained about the poor cars then in service on the LIRR. When the railroad purchased these new cars, they wanted to point them out to commuters and the public, so as each car came into service, it was given a number signifying that it was the 147th new car (on our #2937) or the 182nd (on HOD's # 2972) now running on the railroad. If someone more familiar with the Long Island Rail Road has a different explanation, please advise.

Les

No, you have it exactly correct. As cars, even the old P-54 coaches built in 1927, went through the shops, the gold outlined circle of red was applied. These could be seen around the Island until around 1964.

Does the heat and A/C Function ?

Thanks

Dave

Not sure about the 2972, but the heat and A/C on 2937 at HVRM are functional. As you can see from the photo of 2937 at North Judson, she is the only heated passenger car for our Santa Claus trains.

Les

2972 at HOD has fully functional heat & A/C with power provided by the car's own generator. Much of the electric wiring was updated a few years back and was further updated when it was recently shopped.

Everyone should also know that the folks at Hoosier Valley were tremendously instrumental in helping HOD get the information regarding paint and lettering in order to do our car as well as they did theirs. They spent a lot of time collecting information and emailing and/or mailing it to us in order for us to be successful in our restoration. We owe them a big thank you for all of their efforts to help us.
This is a great example of 2 organizations cooperating to share info and make things happen.

From all of us at Heart of Dixie "THANK YOU!" Hoosier Valley!

Bill