BOYERTOWN, PA. The Titanic had been at the bottom of the sea just two years when the Colebrookdale Railroad’s newest addition was built. Constructed by the Pullman Company as a smoking coach for the Maine Central Railroad, car 2001 spent its life in the majestic White Mountains of New Hampshire.
“The car is a now- very rare example of a once ubiquitous design for the first generation of steel train cars, making its preservation a worthy goal and its value as restored immeasurable,” said Nathaniel Guest, executive director of the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust
The car was donated to the Trust, , the non-profit restoring the Colebrookdale Railroad. It will be stabilized and stored as funds are raised for its restoration. “It needs work, but it’s remarkably complete for a 101-year-old,” said Guest. “I wish we had it in service right now, as we need the capacity, but good things take time—and this will be a very good thing when completed,”
The car travelled on a truck through New Hampshire and Vermont, then to Albany, Oneonta, and Binghamton, New York, crossing into Pennsylvania with a stop in Scranton.
Support the Trust by making a donation at www.colebrookdalerailroad.com.
Mismatched equipment snags railroad project in Boyertown
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| NOTICE the incorrect truck is from MEC #949! |
Third Street in Boyertown was closed for much of the day Friday between Chestnut and Pear Streets as crews from the Colebrookdale Railroad worked on a new antique rail car from the early 1900's.
Nathaniel Guest, executive director of the Colebrookdale Railroad Trust, said a tractor-trailer delivered the car from New Hampshire. The trucks, also known as the wheels, the rail car would ride on were shipped separately from Maine. The two were joined together for the first time Friday, but the rail car and the trucks did not match up as officials expected."The original trucks for the car were gone," Guest said. "We needed to find new ones, and obviously finding 101-year-old trucks to mount with a car (is difficult).
"They're close, but there's some work that's going to need to be done to join them together."
Guest said the work to make the rail car and the trucks compatible will take place over the coming weeks.In
the interim, crews worked Friday to remove the car from the middle of
Third Street so the street could be reopened and to move it into
position for work to be done on it. The car was expected to be moved
into the parking lot of the railroad and put up on cribbing so that work
can be completed.
Guest added that another car will be arriving in a few weeks and both cars then will be craned back onto the railroad tracks.
He said the arrival of the car Friday was very exciting for the railroad."There's
very few cars this vintage and not many at all in this kind of
condition," Guest said. "This was a very common type of car back in 1914
- it was the first generation of steel cars. Before then, the cars were
wooden."Most of them have been scrapped or severely modified, so we're very lucky to be able to save it."
