There have been a lot of great restorations of passenger cars that had been used in work train service back to their original configurations, but I have never seen or heard of a restoration of a car as it was in work train service. Seeing how many old wooden passenger cars have spent more time as work train cars than they did hauling passengers, wouldn't it be appropriate to restore one as a work train car? Isn't this an aspect of railroading that the public should see also? Right now, the only work train cars they see are derelicts, waiting for their turn in the restoration shop, to be restored to their original configuration.
Just some rambling thoughts...

Boyd

bowens@rypn.org

> There have been a lot of great restorations
> of passenger cars that had been used in work
> train service back to their original
> configurations, but I have never seen or
> heard of a restoration of a car as it was in
> work train service. Seeing how many old
> wooden passenger cars have spent more time
> as work train cars than they did hauling
> passengers, wouldn't it be appropriate to
> restore one as a work train car? Isn't this
> an aspect of railroading that the public
> should see also? Right now, the only work
> train cars they see are derelicts, waiting
> for their turn in the restoration shop, to
> be restored to their original configuration.
> Just some rambling thoughts...

> Boyd

Boyd,

This is what the Erie Lacawanna Diner Preservation folks are doing right now. EL 771 was in work train service. This is also true of SN 1020 at WRM in CA it is being restored as a trailer coach from work train service.

J.

EL 741 spent 45 years in passenger service and about 20 in wreck train service. In the case of a diner I don't think many people would want to experience the food and service the wreck train crews got!

Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society

> There have been a lot of great restorations
> of passenger cars that had been used in work
> train service back to their original
> configurations, but I have never seen or
> heard of a restoration of a car as it was in
> work train service. Seeing how many old
> wooden passenger cars have spent more time
> as work train cars than they did hauling
> passengers, wouldn't it be appropriate to
> restore one as a work train car? Isn't this
> an aspect of railroading that the public
> should see also? Right now, the only work
> train cars they see are derelicts, waiting
> for their turn in the restoration shop, to
> be restored to their original configuration.
> Just some rambling thoughts...

Part of the problem here is, what kind of work train are you talking about? Track crew? Wrecking crew? What's in a work train depends on what kind of work is being done. I know of lots of museums with cranes displayed. For a wreck train, all you really have to do is add a MOW box and caboose, then hitch up an older loco. Spencer has that flop of an undercutter the SOU built -- I would think that would count as MOW equipment on display.

Personally, I'd like to have a complete camp train at SCRM. We have a Clinchfield foreman's car (CSX 1720F). It'd be great to have a complete camp train with a couple dormatories, a kitchen, the foreman's car, a potable water tank, a generator, a couple supply boxes, and a hack (probably our SOU transfer caboose XC6). This would be useful both as an exhibit and also as a place to bunk overnight for out-of-town members.

Of course, what we REALLY need at SCRM right now is for the drought to come back so we can get the darned Greenbrier cut dug out! :o(

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net

P&W 401 spent almost all of its career as a work car. It's in good shape and the plan is to conserve it as is.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

The Reading Tech guys are assembling an entire Reading wreck outfit to be interpreted as such. They are well on their way!

rdavis@rypn.org

> P&W 401 spent almost all of its career
> as a work car. It's in good shape and the
> plan is to conserve it as is.

Was 401 really in work service? I had thought that it was a freight motor. What changes were made to convert it to work service?

Frank Hicks

Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars
fullparallel@wideopenwest.com

I was thinking either a wreck train or track gang.
Bunk car, dining car, etc.

Boyd

bowens@rypn.org

IRM at Union, IL is currently repairing and repainting a coach as it was used in company service. It was originally CB&Q 6166. We also have a Pennsy X 23 boxcar that some work has been done on and the intention is for it to be repainted in PRR MOW Yellow, complete with side windows and end doors.

Bob Kutella


68trolley@comcast.net

> Was 401 really in work service? I had
> thought that it was a freight motor. What
> changes were made to convert it to work
> service?

When she was at Penn's Landing, she still had a good supply of parts, arranged in bins inside. Traction motor problems took her out of service shortly before I left the Philly area to return home to SC. I don't really remember what all was inside. I did qualify on her, so I was in her enough to run her at least three or four times, but since the controls and performance were virtually identical to the 46 I didn't need much practice to qual on the 401. That and the fact that I last saw the car 10 years ago make my recollection pretty dim.

The P&W didn't have a whole lot of need for a freight motor. The 401 survived in MOW service until quite late. The 46 was also in MOW service. If you look inside the car, you'll see that the paneling near the center is a different color. That's where BVTA closed up the baggage doors that were cut in her sides.

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@compuzone.net

> There have been a lot of great restorations
> of passenger cars that had been used in work
> train service back to their original
> configurations, but I have never seen or
> heard of a restoration of a car as it was in
> work train service. Seeing how many old
> wooden passenger cars have spent more time
> as work train cars than they did hauling
> passengers, wouldn't it be appropriate to
> restore one as a work train car? Isn't this
> an aspect of railroading that the public
> should see also? Right now, the only work
> train cars they see are derelicts, waiting
> for their turn in the restoration shop, to
> be restored to their original configuration.
> Just some rambling thoughts...

> Boyd

For those of you in the New England area, check out the B&M wreck tender at the Lowell Historical Park. It's a nice preservation of a 1946 conversion of a wooden coach.


wrj494@aol.com

I think that any artifact be ships, trains or what ever has a major period of significance. For a passenger it is the Pullman green and gold paint or the shiney stainless steel it was built with.

The interior in designer colors, not work train gray or institutional green.

But you have a good point about preserving whole trains. Museums should do more of this.

From engine to caboose or groups of long distance passenger cars.

The Golden Gate Railroad Museum here in San Francisco has a lot of work equipment, you might want to visit them some day.

ted_miles@nps.gov

I have never seen or
> heard of a restoration of a car as it was in
> work train service.

I seem to recall that the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera, Alabama, has a nicely restored wooden bunk car that is displayed by their depot, and is open so visitors can see what accommodations were like for track workers.

Alan Maples

AMaples@aol.com

> For those of you in the New England area,
> check out the B&M wreck tender at the
> Lowell Historical Park. It's a nice
> preservation of a 1946 conversion of a
> wooden coach.

Here is that B&M combine located in Lowell, MA. It's situated downtown coupled to the nicely restored B&M 0-6-0 #410, and right next to the trolley line where the Gomaco reproductions run.



SJHussar@aol.com

P&W had two box motors, 401 & 402 (St. Louis 1907) but very little need for parcel service. They had MCB couplers and train air so they pulled what carload freight came in from the PRR. The 402 burned and was replaced by a steel motor from Michigan, also numbered 402 (Now at Rockhill.) The heavier 402(II) took over moving whatever came in the PRR (402 pulled the Electroliners up to the P&W shop)

401 has all sorts of rerailing and other tools inside but its last use was pulling the "pickle car" a flatcar with brine tanks used to deice the third rail in winter. 401 has third rail snowplows. Plows snow off the third rail!

46 was a work car (as 446) and had a door cut in the centre section. We removed the door and replaced the side sill and a steel truss member at Buckingham about 1977. The interior was deliberately done simple to avoid confusing our 1977 work with the original marquetry.

46 and 401 have the same motors and controls (46 uses an adapter coupler) and we used them at Penns Landing for our Santa Train: 46 had the passengers and 401 was "Santa's Workshop."

Electric City Trolley Museum Association