Passenger Car Department

      Thursday, May 28, I again, made the long drive up to Mid Continent RR Museum to work on my new favorite project!   BTY, if any of you are interested in a unique and beautiful  experience of a recreation of an early 20th century railroad you must visit this museum.   Lots of wooden passenger cars, and some in service for Father's Day!  Maybe by that time the No 2 team loco might be fired up and running for the first time in many, many years!! Southwest Wisconsin is very scenic with rolling hills and the "Dells" are close by.   Anyway, enough of that sales pitch! Here are more pictures of the interior. 

As you may notice the lights are working.  I purchased thirty six, 34 volt bulbs,  remove the old ones  and installed the correct voltage bulbs.  Now the system is any working on 34volt DC!   Yes, you can find all my pictures under Bob Kutella's pictures in the Members Photo Gallery. My first stop on, Thursday,was at the Lakes States Railway Historical Association, Inc to pick up all historical documents concerning the "Harvard"   The previous owner of the car, Richard Goddard, is the President of this non-profit professional collection management corporation.   They have just moved into a $350,000 new facility in Barbaroo, Wi.   What a great place to house historic documents.   Climate controlled, computer access, etc.   Richard gave me a tour and I was quite impressed. They had just received a rather large donation of CB&Q steam loco drawings!   This enhances their collection which includes a very substantial collection of Rock Island steam loco  drawings.  After the tour we sat down and along with Ray Burmaster explained and showed me just some of the documents and archival material he collected over the years on the Mt. Harvard. I sure have found out much more information since purchasing the Mt. Harvard.   Its an amazing story how this sleeper was saved  for preservation and then moved from Terra Haute, Indiana, to Missouri, and then to Southern Wisconsin, then to Mid Continent and now hopefully with your help to Irm.  Yes, it did operate on the Milwaukee Road but only for a short time between 1951 and 1953.  It was assigned to the Milwaukee Road COLUMBIAN, on the Spokane to Tacoma-Seattle segment early in 1951, and by mid-year on the Chicago-Twin Cities run.  Most of the time it was assigned to the Pullman Pool starting on 11-19-42 and continuing to operate on the S. P. until resolution of the Pullman anti-trust suit.   This information is from my memory so all dates might not be exact.   In early 1954 it was stored in St. Louis and in October of that year  it was sent to government  storage for strategic reserve in Terra Haute Indiana.  Why Terra Haute?  I believe there was a U.S. Army Ordinance Depot there, with a rather large railroad facility.  It sat there for many years being held for only national emergences!   It along with about 160 other "heavies" sat waiting for the call that, thank heavens, never happened.   What am I talking about?   I presume a major war with?  You have to remember President Eisenhower,  was leading the country, the cold war was increasing and if you had to move troops from one area to another, quickly,  troop trains were the fastest way.   Just look at WWII movements.    Anyway, these are my ideas on the situation at that time and why all these cars were in storage.   Richard gave a list of names of cars held and each individual's condition.   Quickly, going through the list I saw maybe two that were saved.  All the rest were sent to the scraper.  Yikes!!!    I also have a copy of the appraisal from the Pullman company on the worth of the Mt. Harvard  and letters asking for the donation of said to the  Wabash Frisco & Pacific Association located south of ST. Louis, Missouri.  Date of donation May 25 1961!  They asked for a business car to be used on there 12" steam operation line as an office ,etc. and the Mt. Harvard was offered.  Pullman appraisal of this car was between $7,500 and $8,000.    If any you recall living in that era, that was a lot of money in 1961.  The average auto was selling for maybe $1,000 to $2,000 at the time, Yes?     In 1971 the WF&P sold the Mt. Harvard to MCRHS members B.G. Miller and Mark Hinrichs and was shipped to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.   Then in October 7, 1971 it was sold again to MCRHS member Richard Goddard.  In Dec 28 1987, Richard donated the sleeper to MCRHS.   And now, May 2, 2015, I purchased the Mt. Harvard from their auction.      That's the time line as I have researched so far and now the museum needs your help in seeking donations to move the Mt. Harvard from Mid-Continent to our site.   Please consider sending in a donation, large or small to the fund, Mt. Harvard.   This move is time sensitive so please do not delay.    Thank You   Roger  

            May has been a rather on again, off again month in the coach dept.  One week its been like June and the next it been like March.    So... some of our projects have been slowed by the weather changes.   As goofy as it has been we still manage to get things accomplished.   Our main focus, again, has been the upgrading of our Rock Island fleet of passenger cars. 

 With the upcoming Day Out With Thomas event we are continuing the work in the 2612 and upgrading the interior  in the 2555.  The ceiling is the last of the interior painting projects on the 2612.  Working on the interior ceiling  is very comfortable when  the weather is this cool.  Standing on a ladder and painting over head in 90 degrees is not my kind of fun.   I thought it would be a good idea to start the ceiling project when it was relatively still cool.  So we began the painting the ceiling about three weeks ago. With the help of Chase Renwick the job is almost done.   Yet to do is the painting of the steel supports  brackets.  Those can be done at any time but at least the majority of work is completed.  Not pictured but equally important is the continuing of removal of the  old yellow paint on the exterior.    Howard and Mary Gierer and Austin Harvey have been chipping and priming this  last side. Meanwhile, we also have been busy removing old peeling  paint on the 2555.    Dan Boguse has been busy prepping the card advertising holders for the eventual new coat of paint.   I was not at Irm this last weekend but Mark Hoffman told me that he, again, worked on the EL 556 and that Loraine Bixler continued needle chipping on the 2555.  l, instead, drove to the Mid Continent RR  Museum on Thursday and for the next three days worked on the Mt Harvard.   I will be giving you an update on my efforts in a couple of days.  In the mean time, please consider sending a donation in for the Mt. Harvard.  Thank you!    Roger Kramer 

 

      The Illinois Railway Museum is announcing the  major acquisition of a Pullman ten section buffet lounge solarium.  This complete heavy weight sleeper has been donated to the museum by Roger Kramer.   The Name is the    Mt.  Harvard   and it was built in December, 1923 by Pullman Works here in Chicago.  Originally, designated a Sleeper-Observation it had ten sections, a lounge, a women's lavatory, a men's  smoking room and lavatory, and  the observation platform.   At 1923 prices it cost $32,587.00.   Our car, the Mt. Harvard, was one of fifteen cars named in this Mt. series.   It was built to Lot 4742, Plan 3521.  These fifteen cars were built for general service and not assigned to any specific railroad.  In 1935 the car was equipped with air conditioning at the Chicago plant.  Again in 1939 its original floor plan was revised and rebuilt to Plan 3521-L with the enclosure of the open observation platform.  In addition, a small buffet [kitchen] was added and the lounge was updated and enlarged.   This work took nearly three months at a cost of $13,383.00.  To my knowledge this is only one of three cars left in existence in this configuration.  Mt. Baxter and Mt. Broderick  being the only other sleepers left in this lot.          It now is identified as a 10 section Buffet Lounge Solarium Observation.  It has only one vestibule entrance, next to that is the ladies' lavatory, then comes the ten sections[five on either side], the men's smoking room and lavatory, the small buffet, an lastly the 15 seat lounge solarium observation room.  That room included a table for four, a settee for two, and another nine chairs separated by four tables for lamps.        I purchased this sleeper at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum,  North Freedom, Wisconsin auction May 2, 2015.    In a May 11, 2015 letter addressed to the museum was the offer of donation and at the May 16  BOD meeting the museum accepted my donation.       Now you can help Irm with a contribution to the newly established  fund called, you guessed it, MT. HARVARD.      I will tell you why your $ are  so very important to this unique piece.   First, the  MT Harvard is not, I repeat, not an incomplete sleeper.   This is a complete piece with all walls, berths, windows and support appliances.    That is why this car is so important to the collection.   Irm will be able to operate this car in conjunction with our other heavy weight pieces  with a  minimum of effort.   It needs a very good cleaning and some parts reinstalled but it can be done this season!       The major problem is that it must be trucked out within three months of the sale.  It has friction wheel bearings and no US railroad will except this odd technology on their lines.    Just the estimated cost for cranes and trucking to Irm is between  $25,000.  and $30,000.  We must raise this amount to move it.  I believe with your help we can reach this goal in that time frame.   This is definitely a worthy piece to save and appreciate.   I look forward to your questions and comments.   Please, consider this project for your museum!!  The opportunity to save a complete sleeper of the "Golden Age of Railroading" does not come very often.           Thank you       Roger Kramer