If you followed my question about the purple passenger car in the Scranton Steamtown park last week, here is a new turn of events. On my quest to solve the mystery of the purple coach car, I was fortunate enough to be asked to go on a excursion on a restored Lackawanna passenger car. On the car, I questioned the rangers about the purple heavyweight car, all of them could not answer the question. I then asked them if they had any passenger cars from the Florida rails. To my surprise, a ranger told me that in there shops they were in the middle of restoring 3 Seaboard Air Line passenger cars. He did not know the numbers. Also the shop has the Florida East Coast Jim Crow car under restoration. It came up from another Museum. It had been damaged in a Hurricane according to the ranger. He said there shop restores passenger cars from all over the country and then sends them back. In my question last week a mentioned a car with a cover over it in the rail yard. It is a B&O executive car that will be restored from the 40's. If I can find out anymore information on the SAL Cars I will pass it along. Thanks.

-- Jim Simoncelli (bluecomet832@aol.com), August 25, 2001

Answers

Mike...ah ha. I THOUGHT it was a commuter coach. The lack of "long distance hoohaas" and equipment hanging under the side sill made me suspicious of this.

-- Buck Dean (bdean@jngray.com), August 31, 2001.

Mystery solved. I went home, got out my photo books, and sure enough, the car was identical to a series of Jersey Central cars, in fact, I had a photo of a sister car a few numbers away, and it too had the four wheel trucks, three clerestory ventilators, and the raised end windows. Jersey Central 1062 was a 72 seat commuter coach, no generator-the cars were lit by 32 volts generated on the locomotive, one dry toilet, no washing facilities. For those who may have access to various Morning Sun books, photos of similar cars are in the Jersey Central/Lehigh Valley Passenger/Freight car books. Of course, any one who wants a copy of a photo-just ask.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), August 30, 2001.

Well, looking at the photograph, I can definately rule out both ACL and Southern rebuilt cars. The coach is a standard clerestory roof car, three mid roof ventilators, 4 wheel trucks, no AC. Looks very similar to a batch of cars owned by Jersey Central-but for the end windows.The ACL rebuilds had a round roof and 6 wheel trucks, along with AC and wide windows. Will look thru my files and see what it can be.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), August 29, 2001.

I was looking through the 1970 Passenger Car Register and I noticed that the Heart of Dixie Chapter of the NRHS had a coach numbered 1062-presumably it is of Southern heritage. The Southern had several heavyweight Pullmans rebuilt as coachess in 1947-48. these cars were given rounded roofs, wide windows and small square windows at each end. Based upon what you descriibed, I am pretty sure that this is the car. Send me a photo-I will then be sure.

As for the Lackawanna cars, they used to run in commuter service on the Boonton Branch and were referred to as "Wyatt Earp" cars. While built by Pullman in 1912-14, these cars were delivered with open vestibules, and thus looked older than they were.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), August 27, 2001.

To respond to the Lackawanna passenger car. The Steamtown museum has a excursion from Steamtown which is based in Scranton Pa. to Moscow Pa. It is about a 2 hour round trip. The car I was on is a coach numbered 303. It has been completely restored. The interior has been restored to it's original condition. It has beautifull woodwork. It is a sight to see a restored steam engine pull these 1920's heavyweights out of the old railyard. Steamtown also has one of the few Big Boys engines which has survived. It is a highly recommended museum which has a functional turntable and many things to see. Stop by if you are in North East Pa. A trolly museum was recently completed also. Thank for the interest.

-- Jim Simoncelli (bluecomet832@aol.com), August 26, 2001.

Jim, The "Jim Crow" car under restoration is the Seaboard baggage- passenger combine #259 which dates back to 1913, a product of the Pressed Steel Car Co. It's been a member of the Gold Coast RR Museum near Miami as long as I can remember, and I took many rides in it when it was still in operating condition. It used to contain a placard stating that it was last used between Starke and Alachua FL until being donated to the museum in 1957. It suffered damage from Hurricane Andrew in '92, along with many others. There's a short article on this car's restoration in the 4th quarter 1999 LINES SOUTH issue. BTW- what details can you give about that restored Lackawanna coach, and whrere did you ride on it.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), August 26, 2001.

One of those cars is an ex-SAL baggage-coach that came from the museum in South Florida.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), August 26, 2001.