Hello All?

Whose wooden coach-baggage (?) combine is this? Where is it from and where is it going?

Thanks,
Tom


Photo at Railpictures.net

rrhistorian@hotmail.com

Looks suspiciously like a carbody that sat in Strasburg's back shop lineup for years......... Same green, same roof.......

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

I believe that is the Alton & Southern gang car, originally Georgia Northern that was located at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.
It is being sent to a museum in Georgia, which one I can't recall.
As of yesterday, the trucks are still at MOT.


john_nansen@yahoo.com

Longtime Museum of Transportation volunteer Jack Nansen is correct. The former Charleston & Western Carolina - Georgia Northern -Alton & Southern combine was gifted by the Museum of Transportation to the Thronateeska Heritage Center in Georgia and departed MOT a few weeks ago.

The car had been at MOT for decades but became surplus to the collection when Tony Hannold donated his outstanding combine to us following its retirement from the Arkansas & Missouri. We felt Thronateeska would provide an appropriate home for the car and that it belonged at an institution where it would be a priority within the collection.

Museum of Transportation
mbutterworth@stlouisco.com

Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, GA is very pleased to have been the recipient of this gift from MOT. It has taken quite some time for everything to finally come together and get the car moving south to be restored, but as most of you know, nothing in railroad restoration seems to happen very quickly.

The car was built as C&WC 38 in about 1914. It went to the Georgia Northern in the 1930's (we believe) and left for the A&S in the late 1940's. MOT received the car in 1968. Some restoration work was performed in the mid 1970's, but the car was used for storage for the better part of 25 years.

Special thanks go to Molly for her assistance and patience while all the details were worked out.

The car is going first to the Roundhouse Railroad Museum in Savannah for stabilization and restoration of the exterior, including main structural members that were damaged by termites and water intrusion, and the roof. It will be in the roundhouse, so be sure to stop by if you get to Savannah. Once the exterior is completed, we will move the car to Albany to join Georgia Northern Ry locomotive 107 (ex FEC 88, 4-6-2, ALCo, 1911). Interior restoration will be completed at Thronateeska Heritage Center while the car is on exhibit. It is entirely possible that 107 at some point pulled the combine in service on Georgia Northern rails.

Regarding 107, work is proceeding with cosmetic restoration of the locomotive. The tender tank is close to being reattached to the frame, and some sheet metal replacement has been finished on the smokebox. We have discovered some interesting things about the engine as work has progressed...mostly related to collision damage. Most recently we have realized that the smokebox front is not original to the engine. While this might seem like a "no-brainer" to some, it should be pointed out that the engine was donated to the City of Albany and exhibited since 1957, and very little documentation about the locomotive has been uncovered. But now we know why the front end was put together like it was (rather oddly)before being donated. We are doing what we can (within budgetary constraints) to make it look "correct" even though it is impossible to make it right with the parts we have. As received by the city, the smokebox door was a ring of strap steel with flat plate welded to the ring. A new domed smokebox door was donated, but was slightly too small when received. The diameter has been increased and now has a more typical shallow bell shape than what we first had. New strap hinges need to be fabricated to make it complete. The end result will look much more appropriate compared to what the engine has looked like since sometime between 1951 and 1956 when the collision damage apparently occurred.

Slowly but surely...

Stephen S. Syfrett
Albany, GA

> Longtime Museum of Transportation volunteer
> Jack Nansen is correct. The former
> Charleston & Western Carolina - Georgia
> Northern -Alton & Southern combine was
> gifted by the Museum of Transportation to
> the Thronateeska Heritage Center in Georgia
> and departed MOT a few weeks ago.

> The car had been at MOT for decades but
> became surplus to the collection when Tony
> Hannold donated his outstanding combine to
> us following its retirement from the
> Arkansas & Missouri. We felt
> Thronateeska would provide an appropriate
> home for the car and that it belonged at an
> institution where it would be a priority
> within the collection.


ssyfrett@bellsouth.net

This is the best of what deaccessioning can do for the museum community; hone one museum's collection, while enhancing anothers. Kudos to both organizations (especially Molly) for sticking to Mission Statements and realizing that the best place for the car was where it had a highest priority.

TJG

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org