Nostalgia & History > Russ Porter's Private Car #40

Does anyone know what became of artist Russ Porter's private car, former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Pullman #40?

Thanks.

Barry Stone
Edmonds, WA

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I hope it was saved. There aren't many wood private cars around.

Well, if no one knows here, maybe you could send a SASE to Kalmbach. He worked for them for a few years.

Years ago I visited an EJ&E car like this during a restoration project at Ken Keeler's Rail Car Restoration company which was located in the old Portland Traction Company enginehouse in Portland, Oregon. Being curious if this was the same car, I just called Chris McClarney (who was working for Ken at the time and is now a foreman for Drummac doing Amtrak mechanical work at PDX) to find out if the car number he worked on was the 40. It turns out he was working on the 50 and he remembers hearing that there were a pair of such cars. Chris could not remember whether the car arrived at the RCR shop on its own wheels or on a flatbed trailer but does recall that it left the shop before they finished all of the intended work. One of the projects on the 50 was removing its steel siding to revert to its original wood siding appearance. The car had a straight (not fishbelly) steel frame aided by truss rods. At that time it was, and maybe still is, owned by Dr. Lou Steplock who also owns other private cars such as the Running Crane Lake and Casper Mountain located on the Portland & Western in Albany, Oregon. Does anyone know the current location and status of the 50?

I believe the car was parked just off the CPRR mainline. It had been used as a private -
residence and the owner had a short stretch of live-steam size track running next door
to it. The area is Wisc....just past the Wisc-Dells Amtrak station... This may prove to
be old news , but the car was in great condition when I saw it many years ago....Hope this
may assist you....John Baldwin/ San Francisco

The August 1965 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman featured a 5 page article on this car with two pages of line illustrations by Russ Porter showing the car as it was originally built by Pullman in 1901, and after it's 1951 rebuilding by the EJ&E.

Cheers,
Jack

Its still west of Wisconsin Dells off the backroad that crosses the CP mainline at the east end of Kilbourn siding (just east of I-90/94). I saw it this past June will camping in the Dells. It looks great and sits under a roof.

Erik Rasmussen

trainboy03 Wrote:
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> Its still west of Wisconsin Dells off the backroad
> that crosses the CP mainline at the east end of
> Kilbourn siding (just east of I-90/94). I saw it
> this past June will camping in the Dells. It
> looks great and sits under a roof.
>
> Erik Rasmussen


Thanks, all. Does anyone know if Russ Porter is still with us?

poffcapt Wrote:
>
> Thanks, all. Does anyone know if Russ Porter is
> still with us?

Sadly, Russ passed on about a year ago.

Real classy guy, and as talented with a camera as he was with a paintbrush.

Given his appreciation of history and the level to which he maintained the car, I can't imagine Russ not making some arrangements to make sure the car would be cared for.

NZ

I last heard it was in the same place. At one point,Mr. Steplock was interested in getting the #40 & getting the pair together again. The cars were planned as a pair. The #50 was mostly bedrooms w/a small lounge, while the #40 was daytime lounge space. The #50 was on a piece of property about 25 miles east of Sacramento, was trucked totown & loaded on a flatcar for the trip to Portland. The trucks shipped by trucker ahead of the car. I helped out in Sacramento, & got paid a steak dinner at Fultons for it.