If there’s anywhere to find good nuggets of information, this forum is it.

I’d had taken inventory of various trolleys around NC to ensure any extant cars were preserved, especially having run or originated in NC. There were two cars at Daniel Boone Village in Hillsboro that were auctioned off along with a lot of other antique cars, carriages, and miscellaneous items. One car was an open summer car - origin unknown - and another was a Durham birney car - probably a Brill. Apparently, sometime in late 2018 to early 2019 all the artifacts at Daniel Boone Village were auctioned. I have talked with the auctioneers to see if they had any recollection or archives of the auction, but unfortunately they have upgraded their online auctioning services and records and did not maintain any archives of auctions predating 2020-ish. However, the owner mentioned that most of the large items - cars, carriages, rail equipment, etc. - went to someone in South Dakota. From my experience, people with this type of interest in antique cars and the funds to back their collecting are usually well-known among others into antique cars and industrial equipment within their local regions. Would someone with the interest and the means ring a bell to anyone in RYPN community around the Midwest and Dakotas? Thanks for any information you can provide.

Best Regards,
Nate
704-689-4297

Nate,

The Daniel Boone cars (bodies?) do not show up in the Preserved Traction database or the archive of “chicken coop” cars. Hopefully Dave Lathrop will read this thread. He may know something.

Wesley

Ignorant, sorry.

Wesley, Dave,

Thanks! The Durham car popped up from a conversation I may have had with their historical society. I got a nighttime shot of the car - attached - coming back from Richmond one evening. It was used as a trailer car in the amusement park at DB Village.

The open car? I did not know that one existed until I saw a YouTube video from a guy filming the grounds after it closed a few years ago. Who knows where that car originated, but all of this stuff was collected in the 50s and 60s. They advertised the car as being featured in ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ and a ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ which clearly is not the case. YouTube link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jJU3mtjmI2U

Article about the Daniel Boone Village Auction:

https://www.newsoforange.com/business/a ... be32a.html

Regards,
Nate

Nate,

Great video of the open car.

I'll nose around and see what I can learn about the sellers.

Wesley

Wesley,

I’m a bit shocked that I knew nothing of the summer car until that video showed up. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the Durham car when the gentleman approached the building it was stored under before making a beeline to buildings with the cars and open summer car. Uh, that changed my perspective on this little scavenger hunt.

Thanks for the parallel efforts. I’m hoping the daughter of the lady who owned the property can narrow down the geography of the buyer, or provide even more specific information than just geography. I’ll post you as I find out more information about the trolleys. I’m due to pay s visit to Hillsborough in early February and talk with some members of their historical society and daughter/granddaughter of the previous owners.

Other news: Dave and I are going to catch up next week to talk all things trolley, especially Belmont.

Regards,
Nate

Wesley,

Check out this:

https://northcarolina.hibid.com/auction ... llectibles

Here’s their home site:

https://hibid.com

Regards,
Nate

I haven't been able to find anything out about the trolley, but there was a steam road there.

https://tarheeltrains.wordpress.com/200 ... orough-nc/

https://tarheeltrains.wordpress.com/cat ... ailroad-2/

The photos below are from the second link, and are of the engine at what may be its current location.

Wow! That’s a great find. I saw that article, but missed the bottom part of it while skimming it. I never saw the second link, so thank you for the extra diligence in finding that information. Either I have faint memories of that engine at Carowinds or I have seen pictures. I was very young at the time and remember the kiddy park from the late 70s early 80s having a short loop railroad. In the 80s, they definitely were not running a live steam engine. It was some facsimile of a steam engine, probably battery powered. Side Note: I had researched some of the old rides from Carowinds and found still several in use in other countries. The monorail that ran around the park is still in service at a theme park in Mexico, I believe.

I’ll research these links a little further and see if there are some new nuggets of information that could lead somewhere. As it relates back to the steam engine at DB Village, the Durham trolley was used as a trailer car pulled behind an engine, which was the steam engine you located. Mrs. Freeland, before she passed a few years ago, shared this history with me. I got the impression that the little railroad had not run for many years, which seems to align with the streetcar sitting under a shed and no tracks nearby.

Thanks again and I’ll post here as these pieces start to come together. Now there are two other unique Rail pieces to chase that weren’t even on my radar.

Regards,
Nate