Since 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of the completion of the New York Subway, I was wondering about the present condition of ex-IRT Private Car "Mineola." Built for August Belmont, I think it is the only private subway car in the world, but I could be mistaken. I've never been able to find out much info on this car. How long did it stay with the IRT? Where did the Shoreline Trolley museum find it? How complete is it?

david.wilkins@bardstown.com

Shoreline's Web site has some partial answers to your questions:

http://www.bera.org/articles/mineola-hc.html

Mineola page at BERA
eledbetter@rypn.org

The Mineola was at the Magee Transportation Museum in Bloomsburg, PA until Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and the death of Harry Magee in Octoboer of that year forced the closing of the museum. I had heard that it was found in NJ on a farm but do not know how it got to NJ from NY. Shoreline (Branford at the time) got the car in 1973 when all the Magee museum pieces were sold off.

I've been in the car at Shoreline and it shows many examples of its former use. I saw a controller installed on one end but I suspect it is far from being able to operate. Perhaps someone from Shoreline can fill in the details.

Joel

> Since 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of
> the completion of the New York Subway, I was
> wondering about the present condition of
> ex-IRT Private Car "Mineola."
> Built for August Belmont, I think it is the
> only private subway car in the world, but I
> could be mistaken. I've never been able to
> find out much info on this car. How long did
> it stay with the IRT? Where did the
> Shoreline Trolley museum find it? How
> complete is it?


jdstrolley@enter.net

I have seen the car at Shoreline Trolley Museum and the Mineola is a car body that is not as bad as some bodies that I have seen for example there is a beautiful sideboard in one end of the car.

But like most wooden car bodies that were put to off rail uses there are no underbody parts on the car. I think I saw a brake stand, but it may have been a controller, it has been a while.

With so many 100 year old car bodies around these days, I doubt that the museum has any special plans for the car body soon.

Ted Miles


ted_miles@nps.gov

> The Mineola was at the Magee Transportation Museum in Bloomsburg, PA. I had heard that it was found in NJ on a farm but do not know how it got to NJ from NY. <

An article, probably by E. J. Quimby or Steve McGuire in "Railroad" mag. claimed that a scrapper for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company found it under a cloth cover in a subway yard and sent the body (minus any valuable metal) to the family farm, where the dealer's father could use it as a refuge from the grandchildren. I'm sure that all of us involved have mangled the details a bit for the sake of a good story.

104577.651@compuserve.com

> Since 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of
> the completion of the New York Subway, I was
> wondering about the present condition of
> ex-IRT Private Car "Mineola."
> Built for August Belmont, I think it is the
> only private subway car in the world, but I
> could be mistaken. I've never been able to
> find out much info on this car. How long did
> it stay with the IRT? Where did the
> Shoreline Trolley museum find it? How
> complete is it?

The Mineola was August Belmont's private car.
After his death in 1922, it remained in storage
in one of the IRT yards, under a tarp. After
the city take-over in 1940, there was a push to
get rid of any old junk the IRT had laying around
and the car was marked for scrapping. The story
is that the scrapper couldn't bear to destroy
the beautiful wooden car body, so he kept it
and set it up as a shack on his father-in-law's
farm in Flemington, NJ.

I do not know when it left the farm. As others
have pointed out, it wound up at Magee, and then
came to Branford ca 1972. It has been housed
at Branford since it arrived, but prior to
that it was stored outdoors with a tar paper
roof.

All under-body gear was missing, including
switch group, cylinder, rigging, triple valve,
couplers and of course trucks. We have scrounged
up identical parts or reasonable substitutes
for most of these components.

We have had a professional wooden car restoration
expert do an assessment and estimate. It is
pretty pricey. We had a funding opportunity, but
it fell apart as a result of 9/11.


webmaster@bera.org

> We have had a professional wooden car restoration expert do an assessment and estimate. It is pretty pricey. <

How much was it?

104577.651@compuserve.com