Friday, May 18, 2018

New Haven MU car identified

Yesterday brought an exciting find and a new addition to the PNAERC list, courtesy of this thread on Railway Preservation News. It seems that one pre-"washboard" New Haven electric MU car has survived, albeit not exactly intact.

The car in question, shown above in an Alan Maples photo from two years ago, is apparently ex-New Haven 4106, an Osgood-Bradley motor built in 1931 (click here for a diagram of this series). These were some of the MU cars that the New Haven ran that were particularly homely, with their shallow arched roofs and windows set way in from the corner posts. They were also real people haulers - this car has a seating capacity of 120.

Unfortunately not a whole lot is known about the car's history. I believe these cars were mostly retired by the late 1960s or early 1970s but I don't know about this car specifically; nor do I know how (or when) it ended up on the Gettysburg Railroad, where it was in the late 1990s. The RyPN thread suggests that it may have been on the Seaview Railroad in Rhode Island as of about 1990. Regardless, it was bought from the Gettysburg by the Blue Ridge Scenic (possibly in 1997 but I'm not certain) and has been stored at the BRS since then. At some point it was modified to be hauled by a locomotive; the electric equipment was all removed and the end windows were plated over. This may have been done by the New Haven (Penn Central?) or by a tourist line, I don't know. But this is a very historic car so it certainly deserves a spot on the PNAERC  list. Despite its latter-day tourist railroad number of 150 it has been added to the list as New Haven 4106. Any information on this car's history is greatly appreciated!

No comments:

Post a Comment