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Beautiful photos and work. A well written piece too (suitable for a breif)I have two questions, though:How was the restoration work documented? Since this car had a very long service life (in both revenue and company service) its documentation would be of great interest to those who study wood passenger equipment.Roughly how much did the restoration cost and how long did it take? This car is somewhat similar to the last surviving Nickel Plate Road wood coach this restoration could be used as rough guide to estimate how much would have to be raised to restore that car.Great work and thanks for sharing - Tom Cornillie

Kelly,Can you or Linn comment on the decision to use original road names on coaches and restoration of original features such as numberboards, etc. on the locomotives (N&W 475, CN 7312?) vs maintaining standard SRR apperances, etc. Or is the new retro look the new "standard"? I like it! Thanks.Wesley

FANTASTIC!Very fine work gentlemen!I wish I was there to admire it in person.

Beautiful work. JAC

Oh, that is a lovely, lovely car. Only missing baggage racks and lighting fixtures. I see the wires for electric lights; what do you inten to use for fixtures? Any idea what the original was? Kerosine? Pinsch gas?My compliments to the crew that made this happen.

We want to maintain our identity to a point which is why we continue to have equipment lettered for Strasburg. Where possible we will letter cars for their original road but have them painted in Strasburg colors, which has historical precedent.The decision to letter the WM coach was easy since it is the only one we have. The number represents the year it went into service in its present configuration on our line which is our standard numbering system. With the advent of the millenium we added a 1 to the front of the number. We discussed numbering it with an original number but since the car is not in its coach/smoker or combine configuration we decided to go with our number.While non-rail oriented people make up the majority of our customers, the original liveries are pleasing to the railfan community and the rest of our customers don't know the difference or care. As long as that remains the case, we will be more inclined to letter our equipment to reflect its heritage.The flip side is that the Strasburg Rail Road is a real railroad still operating under its orginal charter from June 9th 1832. While the equipment is not original to the Strasburg, it was purchased by Strasburg to do real work to earn real income which is our only source of support. Our Plymouth locomotive, #1 and the PRR boxcar came with the railroad in 1958. The Plymouth was purchased new in 1926 and killed steam. The change of hands (not the first one) in 1958 did not change the purpose or operation of the railroad. The unanticipated interest of the public in riding trains soon religated the freight business to a secondary role.It could be argued that a Strasburg locomotive, lettered for Strasburg and pulling a string of Strasburg passenger cars is more authentic than historically lettered consists. It just isn't as nostalgic. It makes for interesting debate as we do our very best to please most of the people most of the time.

Documentation of our restorations increases with each job. On this car we had a tremendous amount of help from Kurt Bell. We were able to piece together much of what we needed for an accurate restoration. Glen Guerra was very helpful with his advice on the golden oak interior. Physical evidence was sparse as the car had been converted to a coach for the RRMPA by Strasburg in 1970. That was a time of little documentation. What physical evidence we found was very useful and it will allow us to replicate the original stencilling among other things.The seats are not correct, but we had them. They are the same style but do not have the wooden arm assemblies, only wooden armrests. We had to guess at the inner end bulkheads and some of the trim.The cost of the car will approach $500,000. This has been our most expensive rebuild to date and it has included everything from the rail up.Thank you Thomas.

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Linn,The interior is indeed impressive, and certainly captures the look. I was inside a 1911 built Barney & Smith coach where the interior has been refinished, a steel car built for the Soo Line, and the interiors are almost identical. The only item that comes to mind is the possibility that there was a floral rosette worked in inlay at the tops of the pier posts as there is on the Soo Line car, but perhaps not, as this could have been a styling option.This points out the fact that this car is an excellent example of what Barney & Smith was building at their point of transition between wood and steel construction. The only way I can tell this isn't the steel Soo Line car is from the semi-elliptical upper sash; the Soo cars had rectangular sash fitted with the same glass as your WM car.

First off, my tip of the hat goes to Strasburg for this amazing restoration. No matter if the seats aren't original, it still looks authentic!

Christian, Never use the term "only a teenaged railfan". Your ability to recognize the importance of this restored car, the value of the labor and money involved and the intelligence to express yourself in a mature and educated manner, make you much more than that. It is obvious from your writing abilities that you may be an important member of the next generation of preservationists, if you wish to be. Thanks for renewing my faith in another new generation of fans.Don C.

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As a Western Maryland fan and historian, it's great to see this car come "back to life". As I recall, it wasn't in very good shape and I'm sure the restoration was anything but easy. And I'd just like to send out a heart-felt "thank you" for returning a rare piece of WM rolling stock to the high iron.

Kelly and Linn,Thank you both so much for sharing the photos and details of yet another world class restoration.