folks,

Has there been any news from the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society?

Their web site seems to written in January 2003 and four years is a long time on the Internet!

They seem to be one of the more successful groups trying to preserve passenger cars. i gather they got a Tea-21 grant to work on the cars?

Also is their equipment equipped with roller bearings or plain bearings? I wonder how they move the cars?

Ted Miles

Hi, Ted:
Did you try www.eldcps.org? That was up-to-date the last I saw, but it may be that they typed in the wrong date for the update. The NKP 211, City of Lima is coming along well now, with carpeting and fabrics being added to make her presentable by this spring. The original car in their collection, the Erie RR Diner, is just a little further behind in her repairs, but is coming along well. As you might know, this car looked like a basket case when the group acquired her in 2002, but a lot of replacement steel is improving her at Midwest Locomotive in KC. The workers performing the repairs are fitting them in around other, more pressing jobs, such as locomotive repairs for class 1 railroads.

An updated newsletter was mailed recently for the membership. Hope this helps.

Ted (and all),

The website was last updated on February 15, 2007.

All of our cars have roller bearings. The 741 started life with plain bearings, but received secondhand roller bearing trucks from the C&O when it was modernized in 1950. You can see the "C&O" cast into the frames.

We have moved everything as paying customers on the NS, UP, BNSF, and KCS (and gratis on the DL - thank you DMV!).

Tim Stuy
Secretary - ELDCPS

We just got a few new photos in of our 741 restoration. The first photo shows the replica rivets being installed into the new metal and into the belt rail:



The second shows the new metal in place covering the doorway that had been cut in during its wreck train days:



We are starting to prep the car for paint. As always your moral and financial support is appreciated:
http://www.eldcps.org/donations.html

Looking good, Tim. I can almost smell that particular aroma of a late afternoon at Hoboken-- equal mixtures of Presto-Logs, steam vapor and the River.... After photographing the row of white-lined diners and sleepers at Port Jervis in 1970, I never thought I'd see them again. EL 741 is really one that's coming back from "beyond".

And, would you please describe the technique for the faux rivets?

Howard P.

Howard,

Midwest is installing screws into the holes on the side sheets, welding them into place, and then filling in the heads to make it appear as if they were rivets. Extremely effective visually...

Hi, folks.
I found this way back on page seven. This reply should get it back on page 1, so we don't have to rewrite our answers to Ted's Mar 20. post.

Tim,

I had read this posting last month, but meant to ask about filling the opening where the door had been cut-in for work train service. How were you able to replicate the formed metal band (belt below the window band)? That seems to be a major hurdle in making repairs where doors were cut. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks for the poictures and information on the cars.

Something on the web site may have been up graded but when I looked at the cars section it was march 2006, which is a long time on the web!

Thanks for the news! I always enjoy news of success rather than defeat.


Ted Miles