Looking for suggestions as to where some "classic" freight equipment might be obtained. The Nevada Northern Museum is looking for a small number of older freight cars, preferably boxcars, to represent cars that would have visited the NN in interchange service. The museum has an extensive collection of its own equipment (NN and KCC), but for the most part this equipment was captive. Traffic to and from the outside world tended to move in foreign equipment. The NN did have some boxcars suitable for interchange, but as best as we can tell these cars were used for on-line lcl service for most of their career. I'm guessing the equipment we are looking for is in work train service, or perhaps at another museum that has no use for it. Help!

John West

I have a few clarifying questions:

What time period are you looking for cars from?

How much restoration work are you willing to do?

Generally, there is a direct relationship between the age of a car and the amount of restoration work necessary - dependent on the region/climate the car has spent most of its time in.

Tom Cornillie

Since the NN ran from around 1906 until the late 1980's we have a pretty wide window of possibilities. My personal preferrence is something like an outside frame boxcar. Condition is an issue, because the NN is resource constrained with more "native" equipment needing attention than it can readily handle. So unless we can find something that is in reasonable decent condition, we would have to think long and hard before going forward. But at this point we don't really know what might be available.

John West

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Inc., Washington, PA, has available for disposal a 1910 Pressed Steel Car Co. 40 foot 50 ton boxcar, ex-Union RR. The car was originally an ordinary boxcar, built extra strong for carrying tinplate. It has a deep fishbelly underframe and hefty archbar trucks. In the 1930s it was converted to MW use, gaining a caboose like platform on one end and an interior modified for storage of airbrake parts in a multitude of bins. PTM acquired the car in 1963 and used it as a workshop for many years. One side of the body is extensively decayed and it will require a lot of restoration. The car is offered "as is, where is" with all cost of removal to be borne by any museum wishing to have the car. For further information contact PTM Executive Director Scott R. Becker at 724-228-9256 weekdays 8 to 4 EST.

Dave Hamley, President, PTM.

The Boulder County Railway Historical Society has an outside braced wood boxcar available. The car is an ex Ft Worth & Denver car, built by the CB&Q in 1926. The car's number is unknown due to some over agressive sand blasting by a previous owner. The car is complete with trucks and in overall good shape. Work required would include rebuilding the roof walk, some repair to the doors, removing the crap that has been built inside the car (a couple of "hot tub suites", don't ask!) and painting and lettering it.

The car is located about 30 miles east of Denver Colorado and would have to be shipped by truck. Acrane would be required to load it. Our bargain basement price to the Nevada Northern would be $0.00. I will even kick in $500 towards the loading/shipping costs. This is a car that we want to save, but do not have room for at our site.

If there is any interest, let me know and I can send photos etc.

Jason Midyette
Boulder County Railway Historical Society, Inc.
Boulder CO
amjm@indra.com

I have gotten several responses both here and back channel. Let me first thank everyone in general, and once I've digested the info I'll try and get back to each of you individually.

John West

The Bluegrass Railroad Museum was, at one time, offering a L&N double-sheathed boxcar for $100, and it is still listed for sale on their web site. I had a hard time getting them to return my inquiries consistently, though they were polite when I could reach them. Give them a try.

The website, with contact information:
http://www.bgrm.org

Follow the "Equipment for sale" link. It's in pretty sad shape, but I'd imagine it would make for nice restoration, and I'd guess probably applicable to any time between WWI & the 1950s.

Good luck,
David A. Vago

That L&N car needs doors. I think the doors complete with hardware from that "Q" USRA double sheath car body are still available, although the body is shot, and has no underframe.

[quote="jbwest"]Looking for suggestions as to where some "classic" freight equipment might be obtained. ... John West[/quote]

John:

At - Trinity Valley Railroad Historical Association
P.O.Box 6743
Fort Worth, Texas 76115-0743

We have a pair of Armour Meat ice reefers from the late 20's/early 30's. Of course they ride standard friction trucks, but they're in fair-to-good condition, and were moved about 6-months ago to a new storage site on their own wheels. We could let them go for about $4K to $5K apiece, as-is.

Let us know, thanks!!
~George Jenista
email: tvrha2001@yahoo.com, hi-plains@juno.com