Steam & Excursion > Tell Me It's Not True--Fire at FWRHS?!

I just got of the phone with a friend and he says that his cousin heard there was a fire at the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society location at New Haven, Indiana--home of the NKP 765.

My friend didn't see anything in the news but his cousin said at least two cabooses were damaged.

I would think that that would be the two wood cabooses, the NKP and Wabash--both irreplaceable.

Anyone have any details? It reportedly happend yesterday--Saturday.

Kelly?

The annual Open House for the FWRHS is next wknd, so this is certainly not good, if true. Could any Society member comment on this?

From July 31st

Fire investigators are looking into the cause of a small fire that damaged a 1940s' train coach car Tuesday.

New Haven-Adams Township firefighters and the Allen County Sheriff's Department were called to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, 15808 Edgerton Road, at 7:18 p.m. Tuesday.

The stainless-steel Pullman car was sitting on railroad tracks and was on fire, a police report said.

The small fire remains under investigation and arson has not been ruled out, fire department spokesman Chuck Lake said.

Society President Glenn Brendle told police the organization planned to scrap the car and had worked to remove materials from it last weekend. No one was known to be on the property since Sunday and no saws or cutting torches were used, the police report said.

Brendle told police the property was accessible from the east.

The car that burned was former Southern Rwy. 702, named the DELAWARE, a 1941 Pullman built coach-dorm-baggage car that was part of the Tennessean order. The car originally was a Jim Crow car with 22 coach seats. Interestingly, it had the same Heywood-Wakefield coach seats as the matching 800 series coaches and also had the same legroom. I guess that was an early case of "separate but equal" in race relations. It was a near total loss but the FWRHS will salvage the couplers and a few other things. There was so much heat during the fire that the car sagged in the center. 702 was used as the 765's Tool and Crew car in 1979 and 1980. No other cars or buildings were damaged by the fire. It was donated to the FWRHS by Atlanta attorney Stanley G. Nylen about 1978. He was handicapped and had plans to alter the car for his use on Southern Railway trains. We understood that he had used the car only once or twice of which once was behind steam.

NKP779 has it correct.

The car had needed a lot of work prior to this incident. Fortunately, no other equipment was involved.

Thanks all for getting the facts straight on this. I am glad that no other damage was done but am concerned if this indeed was a "torch job" done by some unscrupulous individual.

I seem to recall that we had another passenger car that met the same fate but that was just before I joined the group in the late 70's and were then located on Ryan Road. I recall that it was a much older steel/wood composite car and had been damaged in transit on a yard hump. (I'm told the car was marked and designated as a do not hump car but alas it happened.)

I understand that Dick Yager had an old wood passenger car stored at Wells street near the NYC depot that also met the torch.

We're concerned too if that's the case, and are looking into some preventative measures. They sure picked the right piece, however, considering the other rolling stock in the area.

Photos and some additional information will be up on the site this week as soon as I can process a few photographs for it.

Kelly Lynch
Communications Manager
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society
www.765.org

I understand scrapyards used to torch passenger cars before scrapping to get rid of any upholstery, wood, or other flammable non-recyclables. I'm sure that wouldn't go over very well these days.

The other car that WAB 2800 is referring to was a Santa Fe composite combine, 2302(?). It was burned along Ryan Road around 1978 or so, intentionally for the scrap metal by a private owner. It was not owned by the FWRHS. The NKP wooden car in Fort Wayne, near the NYC Cass Street Depot, had the upper parts of it removed by its owner- a restaurant operator. All that remains is an eighty foot truss rod flat car near the depot.

Just to clarify, was the car already planned to be scrapped or just now because of the fire? The account can be interpreted either way.

Serious defects had been found in the frame of 702 several years prior rendering it extremely impractical for rehabilitation and usable parts were being salvaged prior to scrapping of the body when it caught fire.

I recall that 702 was rusting underneath and the car was no longer road worthy and that was a few years back.

Thanks for the info Wayne. I was told the wood passenger car was owned by Dick. Could he have sold it to the restaurateur? Would that have been the same owner of the depot--Don Hall?

I know that Dick lurks here so I'll probably get an email setting me straight. <G>