A lot of words has been written here about the heavyweight cars built by the Pullman Company.

But little has been said about their wood passenger cars. I would like to know what was their last wood car? I know of a late example, the Soo #67 was built by Pullman in 1905. It is at the Illinois Railway Museum, which has so many of their steel cars.

The car was the station at Allentown, Wisconsin from 1929 to 1971 when it came to Union.

Ted Miles, IRM Member

Ted -

Has IRM put seats back in the car?


Les

I had some involvement with getting that car donated back in 1972. First off, its number on the Wisconsin Central was 57, before it was leased by the Soo Line. The car was renumbered 1935 by the Soo in 1910, and converted to temporary depot W-2000 in 1936. I don't think it spent all its time at Allenton, that was just its last assignment after the grain elevator explosion and fire took the Allenton depot out, but I don't recall the year.

When we first acquired the car John Mc Kelvy and I ran some millwork for it, specifically new poplar window sills. However when we did some dis-assembly to ascertain the overall condition, it became evident that all the carlines on the lower deck of the roof were rotted off at the deck rail, due to the Soo covering over the deck sash and thereby creating a water trap. Neither John nor I had time to take on a project of this magnitude, so the car has sat in dead storage (but inside) ever since. It's just waiting for someone with the time, skill, and money to take the project on.

Interesting details I recall: the car has one wheelset with fabricated plate wheels, and the "regulator board" from the Pintsch gas lighting system is still under the car.