Today, while I was on a business trip on the Gettysburg & Northern in Pennsylvania (a non-passenger run), I happened to inquire about the former Amtrak round-end obs, 3770, former Great Northern 1195, built by AC&F in 1950 for GN's International trainsets, which had sat for years on a siding along the railroad:

"The one that was a furniture showroom?" [referring to its adapted reuse by its late 1970s purchaser]

"Yeah."

"Back there behind the tank cars, you can't see it. The factory burned up a while back and burned up the car with it. It's supposedly on its way to a museum."

After my ride, I drove up to the remains of the factory. To my surprise, the car's body rested on two massive highway truck dollies, with the rail trucks still sitting on the remains of the end of the siding next to it. The car had some obvious fire damage, but was well-sealed. The car carried reporting marks "MNTX" (which is, if I'm to believe the Internet, the Minnesota Transportation Museum) and number 1195, its old GN number. Unfortunately, the arrangement showed signs of not having moved in many months.

So did Minn. Transportation Museum plan to rescue this GN car, and what is the status/progress of this project?

At least two parties have contacted me off-forum and insinuated to me that the factory fire in question occurred AFTER the car was supposedly acquired for preservation by Minnesota Transportation Museum, and the result has been a snafu of legal, logistical, and re-appraisal problems--as in, whether it is still worth moving and preserving with fire damage.

If so, an apparent sad and tragic end to what was a nice car.

You mean this one?
http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/imag ... ation1.JPG
http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/imag ... ation2.JPG
Geez, I never knew it was in the town, and I went there so many times when I was stationed nearby in the Army in 1998. Where was it, anywhere near the depot?

Yes, Aspers, Pa., and these photos presumable positively confirm that the MNTX reporting marks were applied before the car was hit by the factory fire. The photos in question show the car still in place on the siding.

Here it is in Windows Live Local, apparently before the fire:

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... ne=1531791

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... ne=1531594

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

I would be interested in more details about the specific nature of the fire damage to the car. It is indeed unfortunate to hear about this, as this car was a real gem; practically a time-capsule back to its last Amtrak rebuilding.

Here is the Minnesota Transportation Museum's page on the car:
http://mtmuseum.org/?body=jsr/roster/gn1195.html

Tom Cornillie

I can't say for sure about the fire damage; the car is currently VERY well-sealed, and I wasn't about to take the crowbars or power tools to get in just for a cursory inspection. There is obvious char and interior fire damage to the car, with the areas above the windows showing apparent fire from within.

The MTM page reports that the sister to this car, GN 1196, survives in PV service. It would probably be more viable for them to pursue the eventual donation of this car rather than work on/with 1195/3770 at this stage in the game. 3770 might do better as a PV conversion in its current state, although if there was applicable insurance in effect (highly doubtful), there may be some hope.

Looking at the Google maps of the line, I did a bit of scrolling around and discovered that there have been some major changes made in Gettysburg itself. The Gettysburg RR station is gone, and it looks like the area where the shops were is now a volleyball court?

When did all that happen? Looking at the photos it's obviously been a while now, but when did they make all the changes?

The depot is not gone, just moved. The shops were moved as well, when (I believe) back in the Cornell days the adjacent Gettysburg College made what I hear was a VERY lucrative offer for the real estate involved for expansion of the college. What the move basically did was force the railroad off of what had been the northeast leg of what had been a pretty big wye, and consolidate along what had been the northwest leg of the wye, with a tighter wye put in. In a sense it was a good thing for the railroad, for it forced a degree of house-cleaning and re-prioritizing in what had been a more cluttered and unkempt "shortline junkyard shop" than usual. (Local legend has it that the other motivation of the college had more to do with eyesore removal than actual expansion, but I do believe a dorm now sits where 38, 76, and 3254 used to.) I believe all of this came about in the early 1990s or so.