MILW Coaches in Chamberlain, SD Saved

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Aug 23, 2023 10:12 am

From Facebook announcement by the American Passenger Train History Museum in Charles City: Iowa:

https://www.facebook.com/APTHMCharlesCi ... QpKYqGGqEl

Quote:

The time has come to announce Operation Chamberlain Extraction. Today wheels were set in motion (figuratively and literally) on a plan many months in the making. This plan will bring Milwaukee Road coaches 486 and 621 home to the American Passenger Train History Museum. Currently the cars are on a siding in Chamberlain, SD, but need to relocate as the new owner of the railroad would like them removed. The former owner of these coaches donated them to us to prevent their scrapping.
This morning, coach 639 was craned into the air so her trucks could be rolled out and the car body was set down on blocks. The trucks were loaded onto a flatbed for their journey to South Dakota. They will depart for Chamberlain in the morning where they will be placed under coach 621 and 621’s trucks will be shipped back to APTHM for placement under 639. This truck swap is due to 621’s trucks having key brake components torched off and the repair of this damage will cost more than swapping trucks.
Concurrent with the craning and truck work at the museum today, our mechanical guy has started working on both coaches to prepare them for shipment by rail later this fall.
We are very excited to add these two cars to our Hiawatha consist. Of particular note is coach 486, which is one of 18 coaches built for the Olympian Hiawatha in 1947. 486 is one of two surviving Olympian Hiawatha coaches retaining its original interior including the unique Brooks Stevens window band, which matched the original exterior paint scheme of the car.
Stay tuned as we will be posting updates as the cars are prepped and eventually shipped to APTHM later this fall.

This leaves a couple passenger cars visible in the background of the provided photos as presumably still in jeopardy, or en route to new homes.....

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2877

According to a comment with a photo https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 229&type=3

"Justin Nelson
18h ·
James Sucha neither of the cars we are getting are Falls conversions. Both coaches were built as coaches and the other car in Chamberlain is diner 126. The only surviving falls series conversion is coach 649 that went to IRM. Our cars started life as 486 and 516 (621 after converted to a leg rest coach)."

On RR Picture archives is a photo with a comment from 2018 that says: "This is Milwaukee Road 126 “Buffeteria” car. It is a former diner built by the Milwaukee Shops in 1948. Rebuilt in 1964 to a buffet-cafeteria car. Recently (2018) it was acquired by the Illinois Railway Museum and fund raising is currently underway to move it to Union, IL." http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5015587

On the IRM website it says that they have raised $11K of $25K needed to move it: https://www.irm.org/donations/milwaukee-road-126/ I don't know what the cutoff would be before they pull the trigger. Edit: If you go to issue 259, and then pages 52-55, you will see that the interior is relatively intact. https://www.irm.org/current-rail-wire-issues/

There was other equipment in Chamberlain recently, including a DDA40X and a former Long Island C-420 that I believe went to Missouri & Arkansas RR.

Topfuel · **Joined:** Sun Aug 29, 2004 4:49 pm **Posts:** 529

"This leaves a couple passenger cars visible in the background of the provided photos as presumably still in jeopardy, or en route to new homes....."

To clarify, the photo at the top of this thread is of the truck removal at the APTHM in Charles City, IA. The car most prominent in the background is a former MILW Tip Top Tap lounge car which is part of the APTHM collection. It is not in any jeopardy.

Today, the truck swap in Chamberlain was completed and air brake work on the cars will start tomorrow. It is expected it will take another 2 1/2 weeks to complete the work on the 3 cars to make them suitable for movement to their new homes in regular freight train service.