MU Cars West!

A Facebook page called Northwest Daylight Productions posted today that the three ex-Knox & Kane, ex-Lackawanna MU motor cars recently owned by the Heber Valley Railroad in Utah have been sold to the Roaring Camp tourist railroad operation in Felton, California. All three cars - 3568, 3571, and 3593 - have apparently been moved or are in transport. These cars are, frankly, in rough shape. They weren't maintained very well in their later years on the Knox & Kane and, as effectively backup equipment, have received only minimal service (and no paint) since arriving in Utah in 2005. They're definitely not up to the standards of Heber Valley's beautiful fleet of heavyweight cars they acquired from Canada a few years ago.

The above photo, from the aforementioned Facebook post, shows a common problem with the 1930 Lackawanna motor cars: the aluminum roof sheathing separating from the tops of the steel car sides. Thanks to Sean Bowen for alerting me to the cars' arrival in California and to David Wilkins for confirming the sale by HVRR.

Unless the Roaring Camp organization is planning to expand into a new market, these cars are presumably intended to go into service between the home base in Felton and the beachfront in Santa Cruz. I've had the chance to ride both the short, but mountainous, narrow-gauge railroad in Felton and the standard-gauge line down to the beach (see here) and both trips were very enjoyable. When I rode the standard-gauge line, the equipment in use was ex-Boston & Maine wood cars, which made for a very nice experience. Hopefully, these MU cars are being used to bolster, rather than replace, the wood fleet on this line.