Does anyone have any information on the ex pennsy observation car formaly located at Quaker square in Akron Ohio? The Midwest group belives it's number to have been 7503. I have pictures of it at thier facility, taken on Saturday.All I have to do is try and remember how to put a picture on this site.

irss@eriecoast.com

There are two pictures on the Trainorders.com Eastern Railroad Discussion under the heading of "Ex-Pennsy Car".

> Does anyone have any information on the ex
> pennsy observation car formaly located at
> Quaker square in Akron Ohio? The Midwest
> group belives it's number to have been 7503.
> I have pictures of it at thier facility,
> taken on Saturday.All I have to do is try
> and remember how to put a picture on this
> site.


ptrmgtsvc@juno.com

> Does anyone have any information on the ex
> pennsy observation car formaly located at
> Quaker square in Akron Ohio? The Midwest
> group belives it's number to have been 7503.
> I have pictures of it at thier facility,
> taken on Saturday.All I have to do is try
> and remember how to put a picture on this
> site.

I'm going to give you some interesting possibilities:

The 1974 "Railfan's Guide to Museum & Park Displays" has former PRR "Observation car" 7506 "Illinois" listed as housing a large model train display at "Railways of America", the group that eventually mutated into the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RR, at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

There was also PRR business car 7530 "Williamsport", built 1928, at the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington. Anyone seen this car there lately?

The 7500's on the PRR were, to the best of my understanding, PRR division-superintendent Z74 business cars. Numbers and names changed frequently, so if the Akron car is either of these cars (probable ex-7506), there's the possibility of finding a "7503" somewhere in its past.

Bennett?


lner4472@bcpl.net

> I'm going to give you some interesting
> possibilities:

> The 1974 "Railfan's Guide to Museum
> & Park Displays" has former PRR
> "Observation car" 7506
> "Illinois" listed as housing a
> large model train display at "Railways
> of America", the group that eventually
> mutated into the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RR,
> at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

> There was also PRR business car 7530
> "Williamsport", built 1928, at the
> Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington. Anyone
> seen this car there lately?

> The 7500's on the PRR were, to the best of
> my understanding, PRR
> division-superintendent Z74 business cars.
> Numbers and names changed frequently, so if
> the Akron car is either of these cars
> (probable ex-7506), there's the possibility
> of finding a "7503" somewhere in
> its past.

> Bennett?

Its 7506, the "Illinois." I have a picture of it at RR of America in some of or documentation on our ex-Quaker Square survivor. #7530 was still at ORM last I knew (2001), albeit its in almost or even sadder shape then the car at Quaker. I remember the Quaker car well; I believe it sat right behind our car, the ex-GTW Combine #7365. I thought Cuyahoga had gotten a hold of the PRR car at the same time we got our car, though. Brian, you out there? I think another car of this class, the "Ohio" was still out there somewhere as part of a display at a Timken factory in the east. Anyone know for sure? Maybe that's the #7503?

TJG


Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

In checking the Penn Central 5-1-68 Passenger Car Directory, here is what is listed of former PRR car numbers.
The 7503 is listed as class Z 74, the "Harrisburg". The car 100 "Chicagoan" & car 7507 "Quaker City" are class Z 74D as are 7504 "William Penn", 7510 "Pittsburger" & 120 "Pennsylvania".

In 1931 car 7503 was named the Duquesne. In 1951 and again in 1955, it shows up as the Harrisburg, assigned to the Eastern Region Staff. Car 7506 was unusual - it carried only one name (Illinois) in all this time. It was pretty normal for one car to have two or more names -- and it was normal over the longish history of these cars for the same name to appear on two or even three different car numbers.


lner4472@bcpl.net

We did get this car from Quaker Square when we moved the GTW Combine out for TJ, at the time it was our intention to rebuild the car for use on our railroad. About a year ago the decision was made to sell this car because it did not fit in with the rest of our fleet, and we could not see having the time to undertake such a project. Many groups looked at the car but no legitimate offers were made until the Midwest group aproached us about the car, the end result was we traded them this car for a NYC smooth side baggage car that we had a need for.
The PRR car was built by Pullman as PRR #37 a Z74 class car. When it was sold in the late 1950's it was numbered 7506 , before that it was the 7503 as this number is found through out the inside of the car, in some places a 6 has been hastily painted over the 3.
FYI: The Cuyahoga Valley had no affiliation to the Railways of America Museum.

B. Allan

http://www.cvsr.com
cvsrkahuna@aol.com

A few notes to update this thread.

Jerry Britton's website PennsyRR.com has an excellent overview of Z74 business cars, their assignments and dispositions: https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php ... iness-cars

Ozark Mountain Railcar recently listed PRR 7510 "Pittsburger" for sale:
https://ozarkmountainrailcar.com/railEq ... status=new

It is currently located as a display inside Oliver C. Joseph Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Belleville, IL

Here is a video tour of the car from the dealership's owner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XCJ4E6m_GE

Here is a set of photos from 2006 showing RJ Corman moving the car using side-boom tractors when the dealership was relocating to its current location where the car was moved indoors: http://rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThu ... x?id=11087

Additional photos of the 7510 in PRR and Strasburg Railroad service may be found at: http://passcarphotos.rypn.org/Indices/BC11b.htm

I grew up around this equipment and Railways of America. The model trains were never housed in any rail coach that I know of. At the original site in Cuyahoga Falls (now a furniture store called Furniture Depot), the model train display was in a large building behind the replica brick railroad station. When everything was moved to Quaker Square around 1975, a much smaller model train display was set up in the "attic" of the old REA building in back of the old Quaker Oats factory. After Mac Lowry died, and maybe before that, a lot of the models were sold off, and by the time the restaurant ended the railroad-themed displays, they had gone to just having a LGB train set hanging from the ceiling running around the outer part of the dining room.

I do remember the obs car was named Illinois while it was at Quaker Square. I do not know if that was it's original name and number. Also, unless it's been cut out of the main building, one of the 1938 round-end obs cars from the Broadway Ltd. is still part of the main building, having had an annex built around it when Quaker Square was being developed.

Pictures from Cuyahoga Falls in 1963

I didn't remember that there were three tail cars in the collection, two of them being round-end. I don't know which one ended up being built into the building. I do remember the obs car in the front of the property was part sleeper, and was a display car showing rooms set up for both day and night, with mannequins used to represent passengers and crew. Ahead/behind it was a dinner that had a functioning kitchen used as a restaurant that Mac's wife Blondie ran, specializing in "Broasted" chicken. My elders sometimes took me there for lunch after church on a Sunday, then into the train room, and in the early years of the place, for a ride on the Ottaway Aerotrain that ran around the property. After everything moved to Quaker Square, Mac and Blondie had a store there that sold mostly railroad-related knickknacks. She ran the store for at least several years after he died.

To bring up old news:

The former Oliver C. Joseph car dealership, then 107 years old, was sold in May 2022 to new owners, which would account for why this once-famous PV was put up for sale. Does anyone know if it's still inside the David Taylor Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership along Rt. 15 on the west side of Belleville, Ill. (just east of St. Louis)? Looks like it still was when the Google Street View-Mobile drove by in May 2023, and it was still visible through the windows of the back.......

The link to Jerry Britton's Z74 article cited earlier is now defective; try this instead:

https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php ... iness-cars

Bensenville IL is near Chicago, just under 300 miles from St. Louis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bensenville%2C_Illinois

Alexander: Interesting discovery. The car was still there in Belleville in May 2023.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/u6CT3aAjVfKdUw319

Correction noted: BELLEVILLE, Illinois. Not sure how I came up with Bensenville, but I probably had 20+ tabs open at that point.......

[Now the theme music from "The Triplets of Belleville" is running in my head.... in French, no less......)