http://cgi.ebay.com/1950-Pullman-Dining-Car-REAL-TRAIN-CAR-locomotive-rail_W0QQitemZ160040285401QQihZ006QQcategoryZ130QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Madison, Miss., built for C&O in 1950 but sold same year to IC as their 4127; extensive history in the eBay listing. Roller bearings. No, I don't have any interest in this transaction.

Does Monticello Railway Museum have/need an IC diner?

Reading some of the Q&A at the end of this listing leads me to believe this may not be the best or easiest situation to deal with. But I guess if you pay $1.25 for it you would expect that.

I have seen this car listed for sale at least three separate times over the last two years.

Chris

Any car repair guys want to state an opinion if putting the side doors in where they did effectively wrecked the structural integrity of the car? If there was a truss frame in there in that design, I would think you'd have to reconstruct something relatively major, but if the integrity is primarily through a deep frame and sill it might not be so bad.

I don't know if I qualify as a car guy or not, but I've seen the inside of a few Pullman-Standard carbodies. I would guess that the car has weak spots where these doors "provide easy access to the inside," but that if you jack the thing straight and apply enough welding rod, angle, and plate that you could put back what they took out. These carsides aren't trussed in the manner of a bridge or a Budd car. They're just a bunch of rectangles made of various sections with the triangular function being accomplished by the skin welded to the rectangles. So far as I know there's nothing exotic about the Cor-ten steel in them

It doesn't look as though they sliced the side sill or the roof shoulder, which are crucial parts of the monocoque shell. That might make the repair easier. But I wouldn't move or lift it without welding in something to replace the lost horizontal members and skin. As the eBay advertisers say, "Happy bidding!" And welding!

As long as they didn't cut into the side sills or the side plate, the structural integrity should not have been greatly compromised. This is a girder frame car. There have been other cars with similar damage, such as an ex-GN round end obs where the large hole cut in the side was given a cursory plating over, with some rudimentary temporary bracing, for a move from the Seattle area to Maryland in freight train service some years ago.

I recently finished welding together a Birney body out of bits of rusty steel which was moved successfully despite only a couple bits of sheet metal remaining to secure the roof structure to the walls (all the carlines having broken between the belt and the top), the platform structures having lost their bolts securing them to the side sills, knees and center braces, and two of the four corners of the main body being rusted loose from the side sills. Made me much less concerned about bracing before moving. Still, I'd want to make sure there wasn't anything easy and obvious I could do before rigging.

dave

Don't bother with trying to have CN move it. If it ain't perfect, they WILL NOT touch it. As far as a truck move, it shouldn't be a problem if it's welded over with a temporary cover. The coupler status (missing), out of date COTS and the hole in the side preclude a rail move without LOTS of work and $ before hand.
Herb Sakalaucks
Colfax RR Museum

Well, it must have some potential, it's now over $150!

I used to be very skeptical about moving stuff like this NOT on its own wheels until I saw photos of the 2100 hauled out to Tacoma on a TTX flat, and have seen photos of Silk Road Transport hauling California BILEVELS by truck almost coast-to-coast, which seems rather unnecessary.

If there's a will, there's a way. Maybe neither easy nor quick, but probably a way.

It's become increasingly necessary in equipment preservation to know not just the Class 1's, but a good trucker and rigger on a first name basis.