Nostalgia & History > ex-NYC Wingate Brook at Milwaukee -- Oct 86

Wingate Brook - 5 double bedroom/buffet/lounge observation car.
                          Budd-1949 for the NYC Southwestern Limited.
Amtrak used it before it went to private ownership.
I'm not sure if it was being restored or just stored at this spot in the Milwaukee area.
An Algoma Central wooden caboose was here also.

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That would have been not long after the Wingate was sold by Amtrak at auction circa 1984 after being stored at the notorious "Old Mexico" yards in Los Angeles, and later at the Amtrak/Santa Fe 9th St yard, since approximately 1977.  This high-windowed beauty has had a lot of work done to it over the ensuing 30 years off and on but has never been finished and thus has yet to see the light of day as an operating PV. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/16 15:27 by Topfuel.

The silver-painted chipboard is a nice touch.... :)

Bob

My father caught Wingate Brook near Hitchcock, TX, where it was stored for use in the still-born Hoffeinz railroad hotel (along with many other sleeper cars). I later caught it in Amtrak garb on the Texas Chief in Milano, TX, headed north.

Brian Ehni

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In the last years of the 20th Century Limited, Wingate Brook was the back-up car for the two, regulalrly assigned "Creek" series observations.  Though built by Budd (the "Creek" cars were built by Pullman), Wingate Brook had a similar interior arrangement, 5 double bedrooms, and a buffet-lounge.

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

les had it for sale, anyone buy it?

I think it's still parked at Gateway Rail Services in Madison, IL

The photos appear to have been taken at the Milwaukee Railcar Co. Bankruptcy Auction in 1987.  Northern Railcar Corp. (Bill Gardner) won the auction and owned all of the former company's assets, including both cars, for a short period of time.  The Wingate Brook was sold almost immediately to Les Kasten, and the caboose, along with a number of Milwaukee Road cars that were inside of the building, were moved to Northern's shop in Cudahy, and resold from there.  The caboose went to a gentlemen in Oak Creek, WI who trucked it to his property for use as a pool house/play house.  The Milwaukee Road Baggage and Baggage Dorm and a Tap Lounge were later purchased by Les Kasten, and and excluding the tap lounge,  eventually moved to Edwardsville, IL.  The tap lounge was resold by Kasten right from NRCC's facility and moved to PA, where it was recently scrapped.