If the carbody move is beyond your resources or structural integrity of the car, I'd certainly suggest documenting all you can of the whole construction, and cutting off and preserving the intact(ish) end, and stripping all useful trim, hardare, etc off the crushed end. you will have a good basis for a reconstruction using some original structure, which you can mate with useful old stuff on new structure in crafting a very good display piece of something very rare and specific to your mission. You have good sources and woodworkers already - and their skills will get tested in framing a clerestory roof. I'd go for it if at all possible. I've got some old pattern books for wooden car construction and hardware I'd be happy to share with you.

dave

I'm going with Jackson & Sharp... See the below images... very similar construction style inside and out.

http://archives.delaware.gov/exhibits/p ... s-14.shtml
http://archives.delaware.gov/exhibits/p ... s-13.shtml
http://archives.delaware.gov/exhibits/p ... s-18.shtml

Matt:
I have been through this before and after a lot of preliminary work made the decision to walk away and let the owner bull doze the car. In hind sight, we should have made the decision to take the car and then take our time with a realistic effort to rescue what we could.

With that in mind, I suggest you approach this as though you are going to save it. At least make that decision. As others have said, if it is not saved today in some fashion, then it is gone forever. If you save what you can today, then some future generation of volunteers can take on the big restoration/recreation effort.

I can tell you from experience that moving it as a large chunk will be tough, perhaps not practical. I'd move it in pieces.

If you can find an old copy of Slim Gauge News (1972 or so) they had a great article on a guy finding a similar car in a junk yard. When I say similar, it was wood, and it was in bad shape. He removed about a third of the car and made an office out of it in his home. Simply outstanding. Beautifully done. I kind of wonder what ever happened to that guy and the office he built out of the car.

The attached is of a PRR 1860s coach taken about June 2000. Don't let this happen to this car in the woods.

J.R.

Definately rescue what ever you can, the fittings in the clerestory, the mouldings,trim window frames and anything else. I was in two minds as to whether to rescue a shed in someones garden in Cheyenne it was built entirely with wood planks from a CA or CA1 UP caboose, brought the whole lot home in a pick up truck and then a few months later we got offered a 1913 UP CA caboose, i would have been very sad if i hadnt taken the opportunity and an afternoon to get the stuff.

Still not anything like the Jackson and Sharpe car in those pictures, but is almost identical to the NG Pullman being restored in Colorado Springs by the Friends of the Cumbress and Toltec
http://friendsofthectsrrcos.blogspot.com/

Mike Pannell
Cheyenne

Hmm... I see a similar wood pattern in the Pullman car show above. But at the same time, the RR in which I believe this car hails from, ordered a baggage/mail car from Jackson & Sharp, which leads me to wonder if that was their only purchase.

The hardware will be the smoking gun for sure. The decoration in the last image of this thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31370 looks to be the most promising. I've seen similar designs done in paint on multiple Jackson & Sharp cars, however other companies could have done the same.

I've seen that emblem before, I just can't put a finger on where.

thats not what preservation is all about, the old wood workers had a skill being lost, time to relearn.

Hand carving is not difficult or expensive. we had our damaged mouldings reproduced by a carving club in Grand Island NE. They enjoyed the challenge we have 4 slightly different mouldings and all for $18 a piece !

Mike Pannell
Car 57 Cheyenne