(Note:Project thread of mine)
Note two:The layout is the Mid Mon Valley Model Railroad layout- a club in New Eagle Pennsylvania I belong to, J&B Salvage is my scrap yard I built in my section)
There is a rumor that the Pennsylvania railroad had owned two harriman coaches on the "Mid Mon Valley Division", but what happened to them remained a mystery for years. Rumor had it that the two cars derailed after running away on a switchback and were never recovered. Others say they were scrapped in place. Well we at J&B Salvage had rercieved a letter from a group of explorers who were hiking the semi-abandoned switchback and found the two coaches. They sent us the following photo of it. So,they let us know about it. Amazingly, a short Line 40 miles away the Austinville and Dynamite City were just at our yard looking for old coaches, since we do the scrapping for the Pennsylvania railroad. We contacted them by phone to let them know we found two coaches, but they were going to need a lot of work. They called us back, and let us know they were interested, provided we could get the cars off the grade. Thus began what would become know as the "Lost coaches of the Mid Mon Valley". Later that week, we set off with our locomotive, a former USARMY 0-8-0 switcher, and some borrowed Pennsy MOW cars, and track permission to access the grade, since it would involve crossing over the mainline.
After Dropping our MOW cars at the semi-abandoned strip mine (Pictures later), we then crossed over the PRR mainline on a bridge that has not been used in 20 years. Needless to say, it was a nervewracking experience.
Tomorrow I will post about as we got to the cars, and began to rerail them.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
I did this post as a story behind my new cars".
Continuing from yesterday. As we arrived at the crash site, we saw that this was going to be a difficult rescue.So anyway, the crew in the borrowed MOW cars hiked over from the abandoned mine, and set to work rerailing the cars, after seeing the the trucks were still in usable condition.After the cars were rerailed, we took a look inside the cars to see what was left. First photo is the Combination car Which was actually in really well shape for the conditions, the coach was not so lucky. You see, windows broke apart when it slid down the hill, and let dust and the elements in. So yeah, we got them down and over the semi-abandoned switchback with the coach derailing three times. It was early morning when we started rerailing and taking them down, it was late afternoon when they arrived at J&B Salvage. We then contacted the Austinville and dynamite city about our progress, and said they would want them delivered ASAP. So we contacted the PRR, and would have them shipped out the following morning for the "JB restoration facilities", about 30 miles away located in an old Roundhouse. So the following morning, the cars made their final journey away from the Mid Mon Valley division, and onward to the AV&DC.https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/q71/s720x720/1468751_10152468847104778_218107839_n.jpg Stay tuned as they arrive, and are pushed into their respective stalls for restoration work.
Anyone is welcome to comment on this.
I'll bet the fellows in the Accounting Dept. are pretty unhappy over this. They had to use some of those "creative accounting" tricks that Wall Street uses all the time to make those cars "disappear" from the books...Now they'll have to figure out a legit explanation for how they mysteriously re-appeared.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
They were just written off and abandoned in place. I've seen it happen before.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
A quick update. Since I have yet to get the correct color, This little sketch will have to do until I purchase the colors.
The combine is the same paint.
mlehman I'll bet the fellows in the Accounting Dept. are pretty unhappy over this. They had to use some of those "creative accounting" tricks that Wall Street uses all the time to make those cars "disappear" from the books...Now they'll have to figure out a legit explanation for how they mysteriously re-appeared.
The PRR will quietly ignore them. It's the scrapper/restorer who'll have to explain to the taxing authorities how two semi-serviceable cars suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
I recall a story about a Portland (OR) area traction operation that, over a span of many years, wrote off one particular MW motor several times - but never officially reactivated it between writeoffs...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where most of the rolling stock belongs to government agencies, even on private rails)
Don't look at the salvage yard here,we just recovered it. Talk to the hikers who found them...Sort of like a lot of the old Rio Grande cars.
Update: The Austinville and Dynamite city had decided to redesign the paint to become blue with yellow lettering.
The Two coaches reside in their new tempory home "JB restorations" until they are finished
The first thing done was redoing the roof.
Then a few days later the car was painted into blue
Finally the lettering was all that was left on the car. two months after they were found again, this is the result.
Here's the finished combination car
I still need to letter "Baggage" and "1" on the car (anyone have any suggestions to keep the decals staying on, a lot of the custom printed ones I printed off are not sticking). Anyway, one car down, One coach to go.