Passenger Trains > Vintage Passenger Car Damaged In Warehouse Blaze

A fire at a Vancouver, Washington furniture warehouse damaged a passenger car belonging to the
Chelatchie Prairie Railroad.

The call came in as a Dumpster fire. The two-alarm blaze spread to both the railroad car, and warehouse, where firefighters reported furniture on fire.

The car was parked near the building. It was slated for restoration.

KOIN out of Portland has the story. Here’s a link.

https://www.koin.com/local/clark-county/significantly-more-than-reported-crews-battle-fire-at-vancouver-furniture-warehouse/amp/

Posted from iPhone

The Columbian, a Vancouver newspaper, has a photo of the burning car.


https://www.columbian.com/news/2026/aug/29/furniture-warehouse-railroad-car-damaged-by-dumpster-fire-in-vancouver/

Posted from iPhone

Is there any word, if that big hook got some fire damage or not?
Also what is the history of that Passenger Car?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/26 18:45 by GP25.

It looks like a former Northern Pacific business car, but that's all I can tell from the picture. What a tragedy.

It also looks that there may have been something stored inside the car that perhaps acted as an accelerant to the blaze (e.g. stored oxygen tank, chemicals, etc.)

In doing some research, I found that this was Northern Pacific business car "Green River" built in 1924. It was previously used as part of a restaurant in Vancouver called "The Crossing" with a number of other passenger cars. 

This thread has some photos of the restaurant: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5042392

There is a facebook page with some additional information on the restaurant:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/267905029890494/posts/25963301949924116/

The car was stored on this siding since at least 2017. I don't recall other mentions of the car or fund-raising appeals to bring it to another location.

The menu for "The Crossing" describes the car as having "paneling of hand-rubbed, inlaid African mahogany, stained glass door windows"

While the fire damage in the lounge area looks severe, there may be other metal fittings from the B end of the car that could be salvaged, along with trucks, brake components, coulplers, and draft gear. 

I wonder if it was this former NP business car "Green River" that I grabbed a photo of in Vancouver on March 31, 2006?  As I recall it was located just a block or so east of the Vancouver depot.

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The car seems to have a unique roofline. Compparing the two photos the visible rear corner has a squared off roofline short of the end of the car, I would think those are HVAC ducts that were pretty standard for a while. 

The photo on the Columbian webpage seems to show the ducting going a short distance on the Fireman's side, or opposite from the Engineer's side of a locomotive coupled to the front of the car, also opposite of the posted photo.

Very dramatic photo of the fire, that doesn't look like it will buff out, may be salvagable though. All or parts as mentioned. Looks like fire travelled in the dry grass.