Nostalgia & History > Random W&LE and SCL Passenger Cars

Maybe this will be of interest to someone out there...

I'm visiting central Ohio and while driving I70 eastbound this afternoon, about 20 miles west of Columbus, I passed two flatbed trailers going the other direction hauling silver streamlined passenger cars. One was lettered for Wheeling & Lake Erie, the other Seaboard Coast Line. Couldn't tell what type of cars, window arrangements, or even condition; was not expecting to see such a sight and only had a second or two to observe either. That's not much useful information, I know, but will share on the off-chance it's of use to somebody farther west.

  This is just a guess so take it for what it is worth. Those might have been the Orville Railroad Historical Society cars that were involved in the W&LE derailment in Bellevue in July,2014. The cars were damaged and could not be moved by rail from Bellevue. They were auctioned off by Ozark Mountain Rail Car a few weeks ago and does anyone know who bought them?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/15 04:31 by trainsfireengine.

Orrville sold 3 cars: RPCX #103 Robert S. Bixler, #104 City of Orrville, and #106 Ohio Presidents.  Going by the lettering you noted on these 2 cars, these would be the #103 (W&LE lettering) and #106 (SCL lettering).  Here's the history for all 3:

RPCX #103 Robert S. Bixler (Budd, Lot #9613-001, 1946) built as AT&SF 52 seat chair #3155 sold in 1970 to PC and converted to 86 seat commuter coach #2438, later MTA #2438, retired and sold in 1985 to Chuck & Eddie's Recycling in New Haven, CT, resold to RR Museum of New England, resold in 1986 to Orrville as RPCX #103, seating reduced to 68, and named Robert S. Bixler in 1989. Conflict: I had noted MTA #2438 as ending up in Madison, WI, at the former MILW depot, I'm now guessing the numberboards were switched at some point, probably when the cars were being prepped to be removed from Chuck & Eddie's, so therefore the original Santa Fe number might be incorrect.

RPCX #104 City of Orrville (Budd, Lot #96807, 1940) built as ACL 56 seat chair #214, seating reduced in 1954 to 54, to SCL #5406, to Amtrak #5406, retired and sold in 1983 to Rail Diversified in Akron, sold in 1986 to Orrville as RPCX #104 and named City of Orrville.

RPCX #106 Ohio Presidents (Budd, Lot #96501, 1939) built as SAL 56 seat chair #6203 for the Silver Meteor, to SCL #5607 to Amtrak #5607 retired and sold in 1981 to MTA #2473 sold in 1985 to Chuck & Eddie's Recycling, resold to RMNE, resold in 1986 to Orrville as RPCX #106 and named Ohio Presidents. Conflict: I had noted MTA #2473 as sold to the Broadway Dinner Train, then resold to Tioga Central as #365 Norris Brook.  Again, this might be a case of swapped numberboards.

There was a total of 6 Orrville cars involved in the derailment.  The other 3 were:

RPCX #3125 Paul Revere (Budd, Lot #9628-110, 1951) built as PRR Class PP85 29 seat parlor (with drawing room) #7141 Paul Revere for the Congressional, galley space later added by PC, sold in 1971 to Amtrak #3641, reconfigured in 1976 to 46 seat buffet lounge #3327, numbered from November 1976 to May 1977 as #8367, converted in 1981 to HEP lounge #3125, retired and sold in 1995 to private ownership and used on California Western until washouts in 1998, stranded in Willits, CA, sold in 2006 to Glenn Bowman and moved to Ohio as RPCX #3125.

RPCX #101 William B. Baer (Budd, Lot #9613-010, 1947) built as PRR Class P85E 52 seat chair #4064 for the Silver Meteor pool, to PC #4064, sold in 1974 to Amtrak #5286, reconfigured in 1974 to 60 seat coach #6073, sold in 1984 to Orrville as RPCX #101 and named William B. Baer.

RPCX #102 H. H. Wade (Budd, Lot #9613-004, 1947) built as NYC Lot #2171 56 seat chair #2905, to PC #2905, sold in 1973 to Amtrak #5675, sold in 1985 to Orrville as RPCX #102 and named H. H. Wade.

I believe that in the derailment these 6 cars were in the following order: #104, #3125, #101, #103, #106, and #102.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/15 18:46 by Rainier_Rails.

Thank you both for your informative replies!

yorknl Wrote:
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> Thank you both for your informative replies!

You're welcome.  Also of note is that Orrville is in the process of moving locations, and there are several cars which are not owned by the group, which have been at the location they're moving to for quite some time, which might be potentially scrapped if new homes can't be found.  Among these are several cars of New Haven heritage and several unidentified heavyweight Pullman sleepers.

Please note the following correction:  RPCX 3125 PAUL REVERE was NOT involved with the July 1, 2014 derailment of ORHS equipment at Bellevue, OH.   This has been reported falsely several times.  The ORHS equipment was being returned to Orrville, OH after lease in Michigan. True, the Paul Revere moved to Michigan for lease with ORHS equipment, however, for the return move, the ORHS equipment was separated (as planned) from the Paul Revere and the PR went separately to Detroit for lease with FWRHS on the NKP 765 Detroit Arrow.  RPCX 3125 Paul Revere is owned by North Coast Line, Orrville, OH, Glenn Bowman, President.