David Woodbury

from The Saga of B&M No. 1246: New Life for a Sad Old Coach

Car No. 1246 was the 23rd car of Pullman lot 3512, outshopped in July 1907. I’m not sure if it came from the recently-damaged Chicago plant, but would imagine it did (perhaps a reader can tell from the builder’s photo). It served in the B&M’s regular passenger fleet, being rebuilt with a steel underframe in 1926. In 1931, the car was renumbered No. 246 to free up the higher number for a steel coach. That number was used until it was withdrawn from branchline and commuter service in January 1950.

On January 17, 1950, the car was renumbered again to W-3238, by the Concord, New Hampshire shops which had just converted it to a combine for work train service. On June 25,1959, the tired tool car was sold to F. Nelson Blount, and shipped to his Pleasure Island Amusement Park at Wakefield, Massachusetts. When the Blount collection moved to North Walpole, New Hampshire, the car was painted yellow and black and named Mount Sunapee, a mountain near the Claremont & Concord line on which the first Steamtown operations were conducted. The number was changed to No. 243. Within about three years, the wooden car fleet was retired by Steamtown in favor of steel cars, with the better wooden ones sold to Strasburg by 1972.

WRJ494@aol.com.