BOYERTOWN, Pa. — The former private car of steel magnate Charles Schwab, the 1917 Pullman-built solarium-sleeper Loretto, arrived Wednesday, Jan. 31, at its new home, the Colebrookdale Railroad in southeastern Pennsylvania.
It concluded a circuitous 2-day, 250-mile highway journey from the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, Pa., which had owned it for 48 years. The 63-ton, 85-foot-long steel car was named for Schwab’s hometown a few miles west of Altoona. Schwab (1862-1939), the first president of U.S. Steel, later turned Bethlehem Steel into the nation’s second-largest steel producer.
Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust Executive Director Nathaniel C. Guest, right, and CRPT Director of Operations Josh Alderfer. Dan Cupper
Nathaniel Guest, executive director of the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust, said the car will be restored to running condition for use on the 8-mile tourist line. The former Reading Co. branch connects at Pottstown with Norfolk Southern’s Harrisburg Line.
Built at a cost of $151,000, the Loretto contains three bedrooms, a dining area, kitchen, and solarium end. Furnishings include stained glass, mahogany, marble, and brass.
Guest grew up on “a diet of books” about the golden age of the Pullman Palace Car. The Loretto fits neatly into his vision to recreate a slice of that era at Colebrookdale, whose current fleet of cars is appointed with interior décor reflecting an elaborate Gilded-Age Edwardian-period touch. “Every book you look at that has photos of Pullman’s great achievements, this car is in it,” he said.
He credited Pat Browne, a former state representative and current Pennsylvania secretary of revenue, with helping facilitate the transfer. He said he’ll rely on two Trust staff members to bring the car’s interior back to life – woodworker Bill Hogan and designer Justin Boyd.
At Altoona in 1983, two teenage boys started a fire in the car’s interior. “To me, that’s always been an act of civic vandalism that needs to be righted,” said Guest.
Altoona museum’s first car
For the Altoona museum, it was a momentous decision to deaccession the car, which had sentimental ties for many, because in 1975 it was the first piece of rolling stock the group acquired. It came from the Magee Transportation Museum in Bloomsburg, Pa., following the death of that organization’s founder.
But in the nearly five decades since, the museum sharpened its core mission – telling the story of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s 15,000 Altoona employees who worked in a 218-acre shop complex. Also, more urgent projects surfaced: The multimillion-dollar development of the Master Mechanics Building, the Horseshoe Curve Visitor Center, the Harry Bennett Roundhouse, and the restoration of PRR K4s-class 4-6-2 steam engine No. 1361.
RMM Executive Director Joe DeFrancesco said, “Our treasure is somebody else’s treasure [too], and they have the interest and resources to get these back-burner projects over the finish line.” Colebrookdale’s expertise “and their commitment to reverse the fire damage the car suffered in the 1980s” weighed heavily in RMM’s decision to sell.
He said the deal represents a partnership between two historic railroad organizations that “makes good sense all the way around – it gives us track space in the roundhouse and the ability to tackle something else.” Other passenger cars needing work, he said, include such PRR pieces as the Mountain View observation car from the 1949 Broadway Limited, the 1929 Union League Club heavyweight sleeper-buffet-lounge-solarium, and a PRR dining car.
The trucking movement was coordinated by consultant Mark Eyer, working for Venezia Enterprises, which hired Daily Express of Carlisle, Pa.
— Updated at 7 p.m. CT to correct byline.
