Claude:

I purchased your video awhile back, and have enjoyed it very much! ItÂ’s a good documentation of an important historical era, and I thank you for your fine work!

The Episcopal car in Illinois to which you refer is at Jasper Sanfilippo’s Victorian Palace museum in Barrington Hills, IL. I learned through correspondence with those fine people that, unfortunately, the siding put on the car when it was a gift shop was incorrectly installed and had allowed water to leak beneath it. When it was removed, they found “the entire upper structure (from the underfloor timbers upward) was rotten to the core.” So they’ve had to completely rebuild it, and have done so, but in the style of a private luxury car of the Victorian era.

In 2002 I found the chapel car, “Good Will” behind the Sonoma Mission Inn in Boyes Hot Springs, CA. It’s being used as a storage shed, is pretty dilapidated, and sits on private property overgrown with vegetation. I wasn’t able to find the owner to gain access to it.

Dick

Many firmly believe that the US Constitution explicitly mandates a separation of church and state. Here is the 1st Amendment to our Constitution, one of ten commonly called the Bill of Rights:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

tr2manz@frontiernet.net

One of the last issues of L&RP mentioned the Chapel Car St Paul and I think a book was done on the subject of chapel cars.

The one survivor was at I think Nevada City Montana, but then the colllection of cars was sold off and I have not heard where it ended up.

At the Western Railway Museum our line goes past the 1875 Shiloh Church. The museum has helped with fundraising for the historic building and even transported wedding parties to the church.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

Thanks Dick,

My father-in-law (a railroad buff) lives near Barrington. I did not know the Episcopal car is in Barrington Hills. I will go look at it next time I am visiting.



cwiatrowski@earthlink.net

Create a very affordable standard charter package optimized for Sunday Schools and church groups.. a picnic train to a picnic grove would be perfect. Market the charter package heavily to local churches and church groups, but make the same package available to others as well. If the curches want to make it an actual church train with a service and such, that's great! But it's their decision in that case--all you have done is rent them the train, and you are not responsibile for having sponsored the on-board speech.

A note on the kind of issues you could get into with the museum-sponsored church train idea: in 1999 the Hagerstown (MD) Suns minor league baseball team offered a Church Bulletin promotion--discount on admission for anyone who brought a church bulletin. A complaint was lodged by an atheist in town and much litigation ensued. The matter was ultimately settled by negotiation, but only after it became a big entangling distraction for the teams' management.

eledbetter@rypn.org

Chapel Car "Grace" is in Wisconsin:

http://www.greenlake-aba.org/
Select "Things to Do" and then select "History"

Chapel Car "Emmanuel" is in Prairie Village, SD:

http://www.prairievillage.org/Railroad.html

Wesley

National Capital Trolley Museum

Would you be suggesting that the sectarian squabling along the steam v. diesel or opperation v. conservation lines is enough?

david_ackerman@yahoo.com

There are a lot of ideas here. How about doing a church choir festival? You'd get choirs and listeners. You could also stretch this out over a summer inviting a different church choir each week. Of course, there may be other local choirs in your area in addition to church choirs. Be warned that some church choirs crater over the summer and are a shadow of their winter size, or even just completely disappear in the summer. I have to go now. I am off to play drums at a church choir rehearsal.

cwiatrowski@earthlink.net