1908 Wood Box Car
The long wait is over for the B&LE boxcar to be transported from North East to Meadville. Tuesday, October 13, 2015 has been set for the crews of Industrial Truck and Crane, Daily's Express, and Hall's Excavating to converge near the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. ITC will load and unload the boxcar, Daily's will transport it and Hall's will transport the trucks. The boxcar, once numbered #A205 for the B&LE, is being loaned to the French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society for display at Pomona Park in Meadville.
The recent movement of a 1908 wood box car from North East, PA to the French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society display in Pomona Park, pictured here on October 20th, 2015 was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. & Mrs. David P. Miller in Meadville, shown picture here flanked by Ed Cronin, FCV Treasurer and Bernie Hanmore, FCV President. Mrs. Miller is presenting FCVRRHS treasurer with a check while President Bernie Hanmore presents Mr. Miller with a Certificate of Appreciation.
Planning to restore one side of Bessemer and Lake Erie boxcar #80412 continues. David Miller volunteered to pay for the lumber to replace deteriorated portions of siding. Frontier Lumber found some #1 grade yellow pine boards. The boards are 2" x 12" and will be ripped and planed to 1" x 6" x 10'boards, which will then be sent to a local company that will mill the boards for tongue and groove joinery. Seventy boards will be needed to complete the project. A motion was made by Ed Cronin to order 80 boards from Frontier Lumber at their offer of $1.00 per foot. The motion was seconded by John Snyder and approved unanimously. Terry Martin suggested staining the boards instead of painting them.
It was also mentioned that Ray Grabowski of the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society should be informed of the progress made with the boxcar.
5/21/2016: removed and replaced a footboard and backing board on the boxcar as well as a door sill timber. Some nuts and bolts, holding brackets on the boxcar, were also removed in preparation to remove the wood sheathing. It was noted that some of the 5/8" bolts were rusted down to "nothing". The crew of Jack Sheets, Bill McComas, Ed Cronin, Stan Niwa, John Snyder, Terry Martin, Hunt Christie, and Carl Timko were thanked for their efforts.
07/21/2016: The Bessemer and Lake Erie boxcar project is progressing quite well. Footboards have been replaced along with patching a hole in the floor, scraping the loose paint off, priming and painting the new boards, fixing a leak in the roof, making new catwalk supports, and cutting out portions of the siding that were rotted away. Crews will finish painting the first coat on the new boards, and begin priming the exterior. The new boards will get their second coat after the old boards on the one side are replaced. The roof also has to get primered and painted. Patching will also need to be done at the next work session on the 4th of August, 2016.
Nov. 2016: The final job of the year on the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad wooden boxcar (#80412) is to remove one of the doors to rebuild at the U.S. Bronze. The opening will be covered. All available usable wood siding boards have been used. The estimate is about 22 of the boards still needed to complete this phase of the project. The rest of the hardware also still needs to be mounted. Lettering will be painted on in the late spring.
On May 10th, 2017 volunteers installed the brake wheel and a ladder. On the 17th, crews painted the lettering on the side facing the highwayand the south end. Some work on the roof walk and some harware installation was done. Work to be done as weather permits include painting and installing the remaining new boards, when we get them in. After that it is painting the lettering, installing the rest of the hardware and rebuilding the one door.
Aug. 2018: The Bessemer & Lake Erie boxcar only has a few things to do on it before the restoration is complete. The door has been installed by a crew led by Stan Niwa. One of the last jobs to do is a coat of paint on the west side and letter the doors.