Driving around today, I came across this intact Reading Trailer, in Kalamazoo Michigan.



Made me wonder, how many railroad owned trailers are preserved? I imagine these would be a good thing for museums, storage plus a railroad connection.

I can think of only a handful.

TVRM has at least one ex-Southern Railway trailer. They make for handy storage units.

Hoosier Valley has a Railway Express Agency trailer. Below are some photos of HVRM member Tom Travis, painting the trailer back in July of 2013. Although the restoration is not yet completed, eventual plans are to mount it on our 50' TTX flat car.

Les

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There's a Penn Central trailer in a field, in Searsport, Maine.

We (at the DL in Scranton) have a DL&W Phoebe Snow Trailer, an EL trailer and the flat car to put them on.

I wouldn't call it preserved...but you never know what you might see along the road. This one is in LaFayette, Georgia:

I know of at least 2 Southern Railway trailers, and 1 Norfolk and Western trailer around Knoxville

I owned a NYC Flexi-Van for a time (well, the company I own with Bob Walker owned it). It was last lettered for U.S. MAIL, but when we took the placards off (they were pretty sad) we found they were the original Flexi-Van emblem signs turned around and re-purposed. Unfortunately, the large placards with the NYC heralds were gone before we acquired the trailer. IIRC, the trailer was a 1966 Strick. We donated it to IRM a number of years ago; I have no idea what has become of it.

Both the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Roanoke Chapter NRHS own former N&W trailers.

There was a beautiful (albeit faded) McGuiness-era-logo'ed New Haven trailer in some commercial lot somewhere in northeastern PA--at least there was 15 years ago. I snagged pictures but sadly lost track of where exactly it was located.

And I can name at least 4 or 5 Conrail trailers along the Mohawk Valley in NY.

I don't know if it's still there six years later, but there was a C&O/B&O painted trailer used for storage beside the CSX Wilsmere (Wilmington), DE yard office. You'd have to seriously trespass to find out if it's still there.

The Colfax Railroad Museum, in Colfax, WI, has a Milwaukee Road trailer, and about 100 railroad/trailer signs on display.

One of the MP trailers at the Museum of Transportation is on the museum's "Front Runner" TTOX piggyback flat. This car is likely the sole surviving example of their four wheel design and dates to 1984, making it the newest item in the collection. They had 28 inch wheels for better overhead clearance, a rigid trailer hitch at one end, and no continuous floor, meaning they could only be loaded from the side or overhead. Over 2,500 were built starting in 1983 but by the year 2000 they were being phased out and replaced by multi-platform articulated cars. They were sent to Granite City Steel in Illinois, across the river from St. Louis, for scrapping and one of the museum's volunteers saw them lined up there. We asked TTX for a donation and they sent us one in 2001. Other trailers are by the shop and used for storage.

It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but the Conrail Historical Society is proud to count a Roadrailer as part of its collection: http://thecrhs.org/PreservationProjects ... CSZ-463491