Surviving equipment

Pretty sure this is the combined shot of #390, 391 and 392 prior to repaint.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=622704

I believe #392 is on the far left.

Without realizing it I have been aware for some time of another car currently at City Point ... this car which is known as "No. 15" (not the wood-sided RPO from many years ago) is intact and in service. It appears to be from the same order as #MEC 252 (ex-#2001). Roster number (MoW or otherwise) are unknown per informed sources.

Further information would be appreciated.

I found this post at Railway Preservation News that gives a very specific chronology of what happened to Maine Central's streamlined cars and am reposting the relevant material here for posterity:

B&M 56 seat coach 10 seat smoking lounge #4806 Chickadee (P-S, 1947, Lot #W6778, Plan #W46352)

One of sixteen cars, with half owned by MEC as #240-#247, and half owned by B&M as #4800-#4807. MEC sold their cars in 1960 to MP as #770-#777, changed to #481-#488 in 1963. B&M sold their cars in 1957 to Wabash as #1417-#1424. The cars went to N&W in the merger as #1824-#1831, but only four of the cars (#1827, #1829-#1831) were renumbered as such. The other four cars were sold to NJDOT in 1968, which also acquired MEC #244 (the other seven went to NdeM via Edwards). NJDOT sold their five cars to Naparano in 1974. Of the four cars actually renumbered to the N&W #18xx-series:

#1827 (#4803 Black Bird/#1420) was sold in 1971 to the Roanoke Chapter and and saw use with the old SOU-NS steam program. This car is now at Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois.

#1831 (#4807 Snowbird/#1424) was converted to air brake instruction car #405 in 1969. NS sold the car to the Nashville & Eastern in 1988. Current status unknown.

#1829 (#4805 Oriole/#1422) and #1830 (#4806 Chickadee/#1423) were sold in 1971 to Jones Properties, which in turn sold the cars to Railroad Passenger Cars Incorporated. The #1829 (RRP #6600) was used on the Chessie System Safety Express as car #15. I don't know if the #1830 saw use on either the Steam Specials or Safety Express. I also don't know the current whereabouts of the #1829.

Sources:

1. "Streamliner Cars Volume One: Pullman Standard" by W. David Randall (RPC Publications, 1981)

2. "Streamliner Cars Volume Two: The Budd Company" by W. David Randall (RPC Publications, 1981)

3. "Streamliner Cars Volume Three: ACF - Other Builders" by W. David Randall (RPC Publications, 1982)

4. "Amtrak by the Numbers" by David C. Warner and Elbert Simon (White River Productions, 2011)

_________________
Ted Brumberg

Naporano is a scrapping company. Safe to assume therefore that MEC #244 was scrapped. The remaining seven cars were all sent to Mexico. Although I have yet to be able to locate any of them today, I would not be in the least bit surprised if some of them were intact.

#1829 (#4805 Oriole/#1422) and #1830 (#4806 Chickadee/#1423) were sold in 1971 to Jones Properties, which in turn sold the cars to Railroad Passenger Cars Incorporated. The #1829 (RRP #6600) was used on the Chessie System Safety Express as car #15. I don't know if the #1830 saw use on either the Steam Specials or Safety Express. I also don't know the current whereabouts of the #1829.

Three of the B&M/WAB/N&W cars served on the Chessie Steam Special second season it but not for any other season...

B&M 4803 Black Bird/WAB 1420/N&W 1827 (RNRH 1210 John M. Hancock) served on the Chessie Steam Special in 1978 as CSS 12.

B&M 4805 Oriole/WAB 1422/N&W 1829 (RRP 6600) also served, as CSS 13.

B&M 4806 Chickadee/WAB 1423/N&W 1830 (RRP 6601) was CSS 14.

Additional roster information can be found on the Theme Trains website...

http://themetrains.com/main.html

gokeefe wrote:Funny you should mention Mr. Ford.

Some of his photos have been posted to rrpicturearchives.net. Due to their exceptional quality and seemingly unusual foreknowledge of special trains some of us who saw these pictures assumed that "Gil Ford" was a pseudonym for someone who had worked for Guilford Transportation. Some of the photos posted on there are among the only known public photos of MEC #333 LONE TREE in the modern era and likely its last known use right around the time of the GTI purchase.

The last use of MEC Business Car 333 was in September 1987 as part of a GTI Inspection Train. It ran out to Binghamton, NY and return. Made a stop for a shin-dig at Belden Tunnel on the way north/east. The consist was B&M 366-D&H 7402-MEC 333-GTI 390-100.

Interesting that it ran without its power car (#322). I'm assuming power was from a generator on #100?

gokeefe wrote:Interesting that it ran without its power car (#322). I'm assuming power was from a generator on #100?

The #100 was/is equipped with an underslung diesel generator.

On Fawcett St. in Cambridge there are two landlocked, decaying Bluebird-liveried boxcars in the IggY's Bakery parking lot. They sit parallel to the Fitchburg, which is just over the fence. There was an active spur serving Fawcett St. in Cambridge until at least 2001. Around this time I was astonished one afternoon to pull down the road and find a Guilford Geep idling away in the middle of the street w/ boxcar attached. As with most Guilford marginal operations in the Fresh Pond Cambridge area (e.g. Watertown Branch) the tracks were in such a deplorable state that I naturally assumed the Fawcett St. industrial spur to have be long abandoned..

Here's the end of 2017 update on Steamtown's restoration activity on B&M Pacific 3713:

http://www.project3713.com/wp-content/u ... ct3713.pdf

Interestingly, given the original tender body was too rotted to be restored, a new all-welded tender body is to be constructed and "To preserve the visual integrity of the project, replica rivet heads will be welded on in exact locations"!

And there's good swag that can be purchased to help fund the restoration, too.

Hi all,

Are there any updates to this roster? Has anything changed hands, been discovered, scrapped, etc? I know coach 2001 at Colebrookdale has received significant work. I'd love to find out what's new three years, almost four years after the last post here.

At least one of the cars in Thorndike has been scrapped. Possibly both. I went through them a few years ago and there was nothing worth saving. They were just shells with no meaningful amount of original interior that was salvageable.

I was able to find a single heavyweight sleeper car from the Bar Harbor Express (Pullman Herald Square) stored on a tourist line in New Jersey. Reportedly it is partially intact inside. Exterior photos looked very good.

The primary opportunities for identifying surviving MEC equipment appear to be in sleeper cars and equipment from other railroads operating on interline trains. The Mexican rolling stock appears lost to history with the exception of one photo previously discussed. I have yet to find direct evidence of scrapping and hold out hope that perhaps some of the Pullman Standard coach-smoker cars are still intact "south of the border".

I was also never able to definitively conclude the disposition of the cars that were sent to Korea. Quite a few heavyweight coaches in that lot.

It remains remarkable to me that there are still so many loose ends. Maine Central was not some invisible shortline serving a back water. At its peak they were *the* single most important railroad in Northern New England and had better coverage of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont combined than any other railroad.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Unfortunate to hear one of not both cars on the B&ML have been scrapped, but understandable. Perhaps the converted baggage car could have been converted back if one was dedicated enough, which would have (mostly) eliminated the need for an intact interior.

What line in NJ is the Herald Square on, and are there any pictures available online? I'd absolutely love to see the car. A number would be fantastic as well if you happened to have one handy.

It is quite remarkable that there are still so many unknowns and so little known to still be around. Considering all types of equipment, passenger, freight cars, and locomotives, relative to western roads there seems to be just not much from New England left at all. If you look at the number of Santa Fe steam locomotives, for example, still around, it seems like there's an endless supply into the dozens for that road alone. Whereas with New England, you can just about count on both hands the number of true New England steam locomotives left.

The usually dryer weather could be a factor in more steam out West?

Here's the discussion of PRR Herald Square heavyweight Pullman sleeper from the RYPN forums: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 51#p209231

It's in Ringoes, NJ at the Black River & Western (BR&W).

Pictures today surfaced of MEC 333 being removed from a building at Waterville. I wonder if it's finally been sold? Apparently, there has been a new wall built that is trapping it from moving, there is not enough space to properly fit on the transfer table now with the addition of said wall. If it's been sold, hopefully, it stays in New England. Interesting how it's now lettered for the Springfield Terminal.