Thursday, October 7, 2010

Getting the Car Ready to Move...

In late June, volunteers from the Sumpter Valley Railroad and the Western Railway Preservation Society traveled to Baker City to prep the boxcar for the move. The car was sitting on the ground, and was hemmed in by a building on the "B" end, and two trees on one side. We had initially hoped to borrow a forklift and merely lift the car onto a trailer, but that plan fell through when a suitable forklift could not be found. Regardless of how the car was transported, the first task was to get it out of the dirt and up high enough that it could be lifted. A very pleasant surprise was that when the car was raised, it was found that not only were the truss-rods and queen posts intact, but several grab irons and other pieces of hardware from the car were discovered underneath the frame. Number 1353 is far more intact than any of the other extant freight cars, and has already provided a wealth of information in regard to construction techniques and design that can be applied to other SVRy cars under restoration.

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