As a fan of the Great Northern I am always happy to report and to see work being done on this car. Here is some history and some new images of current work sent in by Roger Kramer.
The John J. Mc Loughlin is a heavyweight sleeper car car built by Pullman to plan 3979A as an 8-1-2 configuration in 1929. This was part of an order for 28 cars to inaugurate the flagship train EMPIRE BUILDER, and may be the only preserved example of new heavyweight equipment built for that service. It is very significant to railroad history.
The car received mechanical air conditioning with an auxiliary brine tank in 1936, with the brine tank removed in 1947. When new streamlined lightweight equipment for the Empire Builder followed WW II, the car was sold to the Illinois Central in 1948, and the IC leased it back to the Pullman Company. It was withdrawn from service in 1962 and joined the IRM collection in 1998.
The Pullman Company Car Construction records indicate it was originally painted Pullman Standard Green and it carried the EMPIRE BUILDER name on the letterboards. That is the scheme to be used in our restoration.
On the IC it was repainted into the Panama Limited brown and orange and in March 1956 it included a major shopping and repainting following an accident, spending 24 days in the shops.
According to Pullman records, at various times the car saw service on the Pennsylvania RR, the Texas and Pacific, Western Pacific, and Chicago and Eastern Illinois.
Mark Hoffman is setting up scaffolding, with help from Roger Kramer (photographer).
The work is ongoing to needle chip all the old layers of paint from the east end and vestibules.
The needle chipper makes good progress in the capable hands of Mark
With some of the flat sheeting done, Mark moves on to some of the corner work.
The plan, as mentioned above, is to have this car repainted and carrying the EMPIRE BUILDER lettering. Of course this could be done in a year or two, with a few (more than one) hundred thousand dollars. We would send the car to a contractor to do all this repair and repainting in his shop. But that money is not on hand, so as with many projects, we rely on the IRM volunteers to squeeze every penny of value from the limited funds available. And progress is being made.
So even though not a lot of money is being spent right now, we could use more for paint, supplies, materials, parts and tools that are needed; and here is the inevitable commercial message. Please support the work with a donation to the restricted fund RMCLOU. It will not be wasted.
Comments
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...
Mon, 12-27-2021 16:28
Happy New Year to all the Departments at the Illinois railway Museum! Thanks for all the good work you do in railroad preservation. Ted Miles, [...]
Wed, 10-13-2021 13:33
Was the CB&Q 1309 every transported to IRM?I’ve been reading old issues of Rail&Wire and the car was mentioned several times.
Mon, 06-07-2021 22:40
I was wondering if in the model layout display what scale would you guys be using and would you be displaying model train history as well? Just [...]
Wed, 06-02-2021 17:27
Nice to see 428's cab back on. Looking forward to when it is operable!
Tue, 06-01-2021 16:47
I hope the work will continue on the UP #428. Now that they are the museum's connection to the national railroad network; she would be very [...]
Sat, 04-17-2021 23:07
What is the status of 126, the Milwaukee Buffet car that is in S. Dakota? Any guess on when or if it will get to IRM?
Wed, 04-14-2021 21:09
Perhaps it is time to scrap the remains of the c, B & Q 7128 to make room for the Villa Real. Ted miles, IRM member
Wed, 04-14-2021 15:26
Hi IRM my name is Jason and I was wonder If you guys would be willing to save a CN Dash8-40cm they are currently being retired by CN and being [...]
Fri, 04-09-2021 19:56
Bear in mind that the Nebraska Zephyr is an articulated train set, so cars cannot be inserted at will. Although cars and/or a second engine could be [...]
Wed, 03-31-2021 11:37
I believe Silver Pony is currently on the back burner, and has been put into storage in one of the barns. The car needs a lot of work done to it's [...]