Nostalgia & History > WC Service Truck #299

I've shared this thing on other social avenues, but haven't shown it here. 

Recently, I bought an old Wisconsin Central service truck from CN to tinker with and restore. And yes this photo shows the "good" side. The drivers side has a spray painted CN door and the front fender is dented up, other than that it's pretty sound. No frame rust. Apparently when WC bought it new, is was undercoated to protect it from the rust, and it would appear that when CN got it they continued that by undercoating it again. They were using it until at least December of 2022 as there was a fuel receipt in the cab. Has brand new tires and rear shocks as well. 

When I submitted my offer for it, I was told that it didn't run. No big deal, as my plan was to find a wrecked F250/350 and do a diesel swap on it. But something told me to try and crank it when I get it. Found a hotshot company to bring it down from Conneaut, OH where it was stored and had it brought down to Mississippi. I checked everything over. Had oil, coolant, etc. Had a battery from 2005 in it (that tells me they took the good battery out), so I tried to jump it. It was so dead it wouldn't jump. Went to my local parts store and bought a cheap battery, threw it in and it fired right up on the first try. No knocks, no motor noise, nothing. Had a slight misfire at first, but I assume that was from sitting. No issues now. Checked the dash and its got 68,000 miles on the old 5.4 V8. So for now I'm just going to tune up the current engine and see how it does. 

The next steps are to replace then fender and front bumper, then repaint and decal it. After that I'll start adding my train horn gear since I have a clean slate on the flatbed. My goal is to have this thing road ready for my next outing to the Iron Range in the fall. 

I don't have the funds to purchase my own railcar or locomotive to preserve, but I can preserve an old railroad truck! Contrary to popular belief, railroad preservation doesn't stop at the buildings and trains!

Enjoy!

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That is cool!

There's a fellow on Instagram (texas_connection) who has or had a BN pickup, which seemed to have a longer frame than usual. Pretty interesting.

I agree that rail equipment doesn't stop at rolling stock.

Looking good. Great point about railroad preservation - You are right. It's not just locomotives and cars.
Bob

callen77 Wrote:
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> That is cool!
>
> There's a fellow on Instagram (texas_connection)
> who has or had a BN pickup, which seemed to have a
> longer frame than usual. Pretty interesting.
>
> I agree that rail equipment doesn't stop at
> rolling stock.

Yeah, I follow him. It's a neat truck. Paul Springowski has a couple also. He's the one that sent me the lead on this one.