PORTSMOUTH, R. I. — A 1952 vintage New York Central boxcar was saved thanks to quick action by the Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad. The car had been sitting in an abandoned state for decades in Millis, Mass., on a siding on the Bay Colony Railroad. The property owners wanted the car removed, so it was offered for preservation but if no entity stepped up it would be scrapped.
The Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad acted to save the car, former NYC 172935, and had it trucked to its base of operations in Rhode Island. Eventually it will be restored and repainted.
The Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad is a heritage railroad based in North Kington, R.I. It was formed in 2014-15 from the merger of the for-profit Newport Dinner Train and the nonprofit Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway. It operates over a former New Haven/Penn Central/Conrail line now owned by the state and leased to the railroad.
To see a video of the boxcar move click here.
It has been converted from plain bearings to roller in the original trucks, You can’t use that now because the old journal box blocks a hotbox detector from seeing the bearing.
I saw this video hours after it came out. I was surprised they even spent the money to save it. I felt like I was watching an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine when Thomas found an old rail yard choked with weeds.
I didn’t think the thing would roll with those bearings having sat still for so long, but it made it.
One dear member of the most significant and poetic freight car of the American Railroading is saved safe and sound. Well done the Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Noticed that the wheel bearings were converted to friction to roller bearings. maybe original roller bearings? But still tolled to siding without a hot bearing?