8600 survivors

Does anyone know if any of these former NHRR 8600 series cars still exsist?

THe Watch Hill & The Bunker Hill both were observation cars.

Do any of the 8600 coaches still survive? Or have they all met with the scrapper's torch?

Actually, both "Hill" cars apparently survive. One was bought by the Colorado man who purchased most of the 8600s that RMNE once owned, and was shipped from Mass. to Ohio with the group of 8600s and an MU combine (4670?). That obs car was in horrible condition-- you could look down through the missing window sills and see straight through the missing side sills to the track!! The half-round bar framework was about the only thing left inside the car. The whole car was like a corpse. The other one is apparently still a restaurant in Ohio, but is heavily-modified.

The postwar NH 8600s and related parlors-diners-grill cars were beautiful cars when new, but had that fatal flaw of stainless skin over carbon steel structure. Once the problem was realized, the NH had no money to do anything about it (like a few other roads did), and the fleet was condemned to a slow death by corrosion.

Having seen what was left under the sheathing (not much!) by the early 1980s, I shudder to think what would have been the results of a high-speed derailment of a Danbury train in MNCR's early days. There was little structural integrity left of those cars.

Remember them in the photos of the glory days of Shoreline service, not as the rolling rattletraps they became....

I last saw the "Bunker Hill" in New Braintree Mass. sometime in the early 1990s. The guy who owned it was trying to sell it, but wasn't having too much luck. I toured the inside and was stunned about how bad it looked.

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What would a modeler need to get to make one of these? I'm thinking of the Danbury branch through trains(1146,1148) just before metro north

Having seen what was left under the sheathing (not much!) by the early 1980s, I shudder to think what would have been the results of a high-speed derailment of a Danbury train in MNCR's early days. There was little structural integrity left of those cars.

Ah yes . .. I commuted on those Danbury trains in the era you're talking about and was amazed at how well those cars operated.

What would a modeler need to get to make one of these? I'm thinking of the Danbury branch through trains(1146,1148) just before metro north

Well, for that era you need a pair of FL9s painted in the old blue-yellow scheme, or in the two tone gray of the seven 1979 rebuilds; and 7 or 8 8600 coaches. Models of both the FL9s and the coaches can be hard to find --- not impossible but hard.

S. Soho made the coaches in brass about 27 years ago, and they do show up at brass dealers now and then. You have to look but they can be had. E&B Valley Car Works made them in plastic and later sold the dies to Eastern Car Works. The NHRHTA marketed those kits with Concord Junction sides, but they have been gone for a while. The ECW cars can be had too but, again, you have to search. Try some Google searches.

Regarding FL9s, two brass ones were produced twice: by NJ Custom Brass about 1983, and by Overland sometime later. They show up at brass dealers too but are undeniably pricey. Branford Hobbies (Connecticut) produces, or did produce, a kit with a plastic or resin (I do not know which) body.

Oh, one other thing: one of the Danbury trains in that era carried a bar car that was one of the batch of second-hand stainless cars from various roads that MTA purchased a number of in the 70s. That particular car had originally been built for Pere Marquette and later sold to Chicago & Eastern Illinois, MTA being its third owner.

So the E.C.W. kits ARE correct! Thanks! Yes, those lovely unloved Conrail FL-9's. I think Theres something in the model rr forum about them. The pressures on to do them in high end plastic. We might get lucky within the year. Because you cant just have 1. Four from each era at least.

Tom, were you taking any pics on the branch back then?

In May 1997 the RMNE sold 8673 and 8695 to the Conn Eastern Chapter NRHS (Conn Eastern RR Museum) for $1.00 each, "as is where is" which was the Seaview RR in Davisville, RI. We also gave the CERM some of coach parts we had accumulated for these cars. the The CERM spent considerably more to prep and ship the cars to Willimantic. Outside of the cars mentioned by Mr. Malone, these are most likely the only survivors.

I recall being offered a chance to buy one of these cars. But the price was too high and I had nowhere to keep it. Plus, they were pretty well shot by then. It was from the same batch that ran on the Cape Cod & Hyannis Railroad until 1989.

H.F.Malone wrote:The postwar NH 8600s and related parlors-diners-grill cars were beautiful cars when new, but had that fatal flaw of stainless skin over carbon steel structure. Once the problem was realized, the NH had no money to do anything about it (like a few other roads did), and the fleet was condemned to a slow death by corrosion.

Having seen what was left under the sheathing (not much!) by the early 1980s, I shudder to think what would have been the results of a high-speed derailment of a Danbury train in MNCR's early days. There was little structural integrity left of those cars.

Mr. Malone:

I've been told that New Haven's 1954-1955 vintage BEACH (6-6-4), POINT (14-4) and STATE (6 bedroom lounge) sleepers were built by Pullman Standard using stainless steel over stainless steel construction. However, I assume there is a Corten (non-stainless) steel structure in these cars, as Pullman Standard did not use Budd's patented shotwelded stainless steel construction methods.

I do remember see WATCH HILL at GCT in the 1971-1975 era; it was used as a midtrain commuter bar lounge on a MTA/PC New Haven line train.

J. H. Deasy

Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I remember touring a privately owned former 8600 series NH coach that had been retrofitted with an Amfleet style interior. I think the coach was being used in the dinner/excursion trains at the Maryland Midland Railway, but was leased from another owner. I have no photos of the car, only memories.

Can anyone confirm this?

http://www.bcoolidge.com/PC%20Pix/Obser ... h_6_76.jpg

Tavern lounge observation car PC 4425 (x-NH 476 BUNKER HILL) stored at Croton-Harmon NY

One early train to get 8600's was believe it or not 442, 153, 158 and 465 between Bridgeport - Winsted - New York - Winsted
- Bridgeport. On train 153 more 8600's were added at Waterbury and on 158 the extra cars came off at Waterbury. Only
one 8600 ran to Winsted along with the RPO and a baggage car for Railway Express and sometimes a set out car of express
for Torrington which was dropped by 442 and picked up by 465.
I remember riding these cars from Torrington to Winsted and back to Torrington early on maybe in 1948. They had neat
head rest covers, nice plush mohair seats, no advertiseing signes but two round mirrors on the end bulkheads on each end
of the car. They had PA systems in them which the trainman could open a small door with a coach key and use the mike to
make announcements, the PA was not trainlined.
One reason these new cars were used to Winsted was because they could run the train with one coach most days and these
cars had a lounge for smoking. Previously they had to run two cars in order to provide for a non smoking and smoking car.
They were a very advanced car for this route but they worked out OK and I think the railroad could run the train with one
less train crew member.
There were some very influential people in Waterbury and some big freight customers there too so they wanted to provide
the most important passenger train out of there with the best possible cars. On weekends they did not use the 8600's on
the Naugy but come Monday, they were back. This lasted until the 1955 floods in August, 1955.
Noel Weaver