The Mid-Continent Railway Museum has a nationally-renowned, award-winning wooden car restoration program. While all museum visitors are able to see the beautiful restorations from the Museum's Coach Shed viewing platforms alongside the cars, much of the fine craftsmanship can only be appreciated once you are inside the cars.

For one weekend only, September 19-20, 2015, museum visitors will have an opportunity go inside the wooden cars to experience every bit of these extremely special and historically significant cars. Guided tours will be provided by knowledgeable restoration volunteers and will take visitors beyond locked doors and inside these exquisitely restored cars that date back from over 100 years ago.

Five cars have been selected to be part of this special program. Amongst these five is the Wisconsin Fish Commission Badger No.2. This event marks the first time that the car will be opened up to the public and it should be a real crowd favorite as it represents one of Mid-Continent Railway Museum’s most ambitious car restoration to date. The restoration effort to restore it to its 1913 appearance became the subject of an episode of the television show Ultimate Restorations. Visitors will get to view this ultimate restoration from the inside out during this tour!

The other four cars are no less magnificent. These include the Duluth South Shore & Atlantic #213 (Jackson & Sharp 1888), Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western #63 (Barney & Smith 1888), Wisconsin Central “Oak Park” (Barney & Smith 1884) and Copper Range Railroad #60 (AC&F 1903). Countless hours, donations and funds have been spent to bring these cars to their period appearance.

Since this is a special event and all tour groups will be kept small, tickets must be purchased for the guided car tours. To reserve a spot in a tour group, call the Museum office or access the Museum's website’s online reservation system for more information. Additional information regrading the restored wooden cars and the Wooden Car Tours can be accessed from the following link:

http://www.midcontinent.org/train-ride-information/wood-car-tours/

Come join us for an inside look into the past!

Bill Buhrmaster
MCRM Restoration Dept.

I saw that episode of Ultimate Restorations, which was quite good. I have a question though: why are the cars not normally opened to the public? It's very beautiful inside - it seems a shame to hide it away, especially for a museum.

Cannot answer for Bill, but my reasons would be a couple offered. The pain staking work that went into these cars would be in jeopardy by being open to public without someone there keeping an eye on things. I would be upset when I found initials carved into the finely restored woodwork or simply key marks scratched into the wood. Or seat cushions cut or stained, in short vandalism by some unwatched and uncaring person. Just the wear and tear of having many people walking through would end up taking away from the restoration. Of course I realize there are many thoughts on the subject of restoring and using/displaying equipment. Stuff and mounted is not my cup of tea either, but after the work that goes into these I can understand only occasional tours inside the cars. The attention to details these wood car shop guys put into these these restorations in incredible so I can understand them wanting to "guard" their work and the car itself.

It may seem like putting plastic covers over ones living room furniture rather than enjoying the comfort of the couch, but after you see the wear and tear and potential vandalism and theft at a museum I can understand why. Just my take on it and am not involved with the car shop very often. For people who are truly interested in these cars or the craftsmanship that went into them at build and the later restoration, I think the tour idea is best for all concerned. Again not a speaking for Bill or MC.

Regards, John.

It all depends on the staff available. At the Colfax Railroad Museum in western Wisconsin, we have docents that provide tours of all finished equipment. Depending on interest and ability to negotiate entry stairs, we will provide limited viewings of equipment under restoration to show what is involved and how cars were originally built. We do have to do annual touch ups, but a car that can't be viewed might as well not have had the work done in the first place. But as one person said, you still have to be aware of potential vandals. I believe there is an art gallery in Taiwan right now that is trying to explain to a painting lender why his $1.5 million painting has a large hole from a child that tripped and ran his hand through the picture. You can try to cover all eventualities, but our job is to educate the public on railroads and it can't be done behind closed doors.

I just ran across some photographs of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic coach #213 (Built by Jackson & Sharp in 1888) prior to and after restoration.

The B&W exterior photograph was taken prior to acquiring the car in Marquette, MI. Note that the entire platform and sills had been pulled off of the car (during switching incident). The interior photograph was taken during the early stages of restoration.

Enjoy!

Bill Buhrmaster

Thanks Bill for those old pictures to contrast the current state of #213. This is one of my all time favorites due to recalling the condition it was in when Ray and your family started working on #213. I think both of us were fairly young then! Just a thought for you to do some more work "in your spare time". Recall talking to Ray and he telling me how much work it was to restore that end that was "pulled off". If I recall and I may have the facts twisted, didn't he restore the repaired end exactly like it was built rather than take an easier approach? The work he did was really pretty intensive/extensive if I remember right? Even though the restoration is not a recent one, think it would make a great subject. Notice how I can come up with more work for you? You can thank me later. I am not biased at all concerning the #213!

I am not a car shop guy and know nothing about car construction or major reconstruction repair such as what was done on #213. But what an incredible restoration. Think the photo from Marquette makes the car look better than it was? From my memory it was pretty rough. A most awesome car. Regards, John.

Here's a link to a several year-old web page from Pacific Southwest RR Museum, showing some before/after photos of our RS&S #3, originally Pennsylvania #3736, built in 1886:

http://sdrm.info/roster/passenger/combine3/index.html.

The interior has been restored; unfortunately, I don't have any photos. It is open to the public to walk through it and the adjoining ATSF RPO #74.

(The museum has a new web site, but all the good stuff from the old site hasn't been "migrated" yet)