We have had threads in the past on RyPN about "lost" locomotives; fallen in a lake, buried in the bayou, sitting at the bottom of the ocean, etc., etc. Well, there was a thread today on the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society discussion website that I found somewhat different, and interesting. Here's the story as reported there:

The Milwaukee Road was pulling out their southern Indiana line in the 1961-1962 time period. Between Bedford and Jasonville, they came to an abandoned siding only to discover that is wasn't quite abandoned, it had a box car still sitting on it! The box car was opened and was filled with World War II Jeeps! All brand new!!

Someone on the website commented about the Jeeps; "What a Find!" I, on the other hand, was interested in the box car. Was it a Milwaukee Road car? If not, was the railroad still paying demurrage on it? But what happened to the box car? Here was one that should have gone right to a railroad museum! They were around in that time frame. Perhaps donated with the Jeeps still in it! Certainly the box car had to be written off by that time. Anyway, the question is, who knows more about this? This must have made the newspapers and the TV news. My guess is that the box car probably was consigned right to the nearest scrap facility. Another case of a railroad not knowing how to make Steak out of Hamburger!

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Here is a similar story that I personally experienced. Back in 1986 Conrail tore up the former Lehigh & Hudson River Railway from just south of Sparta Jct. to Belvidere, NJ. The siding at Allamuchy was in use until the end bringing in boxcars of feed. Well when the scrap train got to Allamuchy there was still a 50 foot Penn Central boxcar on the siding. They pulled up all of the track except that under the boxcar. In other words they left the boxcar stranded there. So for the next few years the Allamuchy freight house and the boxcar sat there forgotten. Then one day I drove by in 1989 and almost drove off the road. The boxcar (and the rails under it) was gone!

In the last few years I have been involved in a project to restore the freight house. I have asked the locals what happened to the boxcar and have gotten responses from "What boxcar?" to "You don't want to know!"

The Jeep story sounds like other tales I've heard.

Wesley

I think we may be in urban legend territory here. I heard the same story, only it was in Iowa, and the boxcar was full of new Packards.

Yep. Have heard about the Jeeps in several different locations.

And the GWR locos still squirreled away inside Box Tunnel.

And the cashe of engines at Craven Arms.

And . . . and . . .

JAC

about 5 years ago the Soo Line tracks through Holdingford Minnesota were pulled up. An old empty boxcar that had been used by MoW was left there and is now part of the rail-trail rest area. The scrappers had bought the rail but not the car and it wasn't worth the trouble to try to sell it or else the rr just forgot it was there. Friction bearings so it wasn't worth the rr moving in any case.

As Yoda would say, “An urban legend, it is.” This never happened. I’m actually more in the know on WW2 Jeeps than I am about trains (I’ve owned my own 1944 Willys MB since 1999), and these stories creep up, but none of them have ever been verified by anyone. Almost every WW2 Jeep currently in existence has a well-documented history behind it. A box car full of WW2 Jeeps would be very well known among Jeep owners today if indeed it had ever happened, as such Jeeps would be worth a substantial amount today (the same thing for any other Jeeps, even if they were postwar). It’s like saying you found a 4-8-4 in a scrap yard somewhere and nobody knows now where it is today. No way that this would have happened without a lot of folks knowing about the specifics. As a WW2 Jeep owner, every time you show the vehicle somewhere, you also hear the “$50 Jeep in a crate” story, which also never happened:
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_jeeps_50dollars.php3
http://members.aol.com/brimiljeep/WebPa ... ePage.html

The version of the story that I heard included a PRR spur somewhere in Pennsylvania and a carload of 1942 Chevy's. I heard it from a PRR track supervisor back around 1959.

Things like that happen. I came uppn this example last year, while working on a consulting job in the south. There is a box car, carrying the Class I reporting marks of a "fallen flag" carrier, presently sitting in the tall weeds at the far end of a disconnected siding, on a functioning short line. The car is equipped with experimental fabricated roller-bearing freight trucks and is clearly stenciled "do not move off-line", as well as with a phone number to call in case work is required on the trucks. My best guess is that the car was spotted at what was then an on-line industry. The Class I was merged, and subsequently the branch line was sold off to a short line. Since then, both the industry and the rail line have changed hands a couple of more times, the switch was taken out, and the weeds have grown up, etc. The box car is in pretty good shape. The local rail historical group has an eye on the car. I have wondered if the car is still in the UMLER system and whether the Class I is still looking for it.

Catalpa -

How about reporting marks and a car number? Keep the location secret if you want.

Les

Knox & Kane has a similar story from the early 1990s. On the East side of the old Erie line just North of the connection with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh at Mt. Jewett, Pa. are some old vine covered B&O freight cars. The K&K narration to their passengers was that they had been stored and forgotten by the B&O Maintenance of Way Department on a few feet of the old Erie track. When K&K rebuilt the line to Kinzua Viaduct, they had to move them to a nearby siding.

JAC -

Are you telling me that you don't believe the story about the 3 Ts-1's and the 2 Ps-4's that are buried inside Tunnel 17 just south of Sunbright, TN???

Mark, John, Don't forget about the dozen N&W steamers inside "old" Elkhorn Tunnel in West Virginia............

And all youse guys keep skipping over all those PRR T-1s in a coal mine near Indiana, PA!!!

Anyone remember the hoax perpetrated about 1970, when a supposed Clinchfield 2-8-2 was "found" in stationary boiler service deep inside a factory near Kingsport, TN? The new Clinchfield steam program was set to rescue the loco and replace 4-6-0 #1 with it. A well-know 1960s and 70s steam photographer, who was a monthly columnist for a venerable rail magazine, fell hard for that tale, and printed a few breathless "updates" about it-- but never a photo, and the story finally went away.

We're getting a little bit off course on this thread, but since I started it, I guess I'll continue the diversion. The locomotive I often wonder about is Great Northern 4-8-4 # 2580. This engine was held in a GN roundhouse somewhere while an effort was made to come up with funds to save it for operation. It was an S-1 class; different from GN S-2 class 4-8-4 # 2584 that WAS saved and is now on display at Havre, Montana. I even remember a photo of 2580 appearing in an issue of TRAINS Magazine. So what happened? Probably not enough funds raised. But I never heard for sure. No chance that she still sits somewhere is there?

Les