We just received the following information from a reader in Kentucky:
Just a note to share that a Hicks coach is being demolished for scrap in
Cadiz, Ky. The coach was purchased by the Cadiz Railroad between 1902 &
1908 and was converted into a home in 1938. The current property owner has sold
the coach/house to a man who is tearing it apart for the scrap iron. I had
believed it o be a Hicks car from my research on a book I've been writing on the
history of the Cadiz Railroad. The man doing the demolition found the Hicks
name plate in his demolition, confirming the source of the coach. I found the
blueprints for the car (I believed them to be this coach but did not have
"proof") in the Cadiz RR company papers that were donated to a the archives at
Western Kentucky University.
I don't know if anyone would want to try to save this coach, but the man
says he will stop his demolition and sell the coach for $3,000. I don't know if
that is a reasonable price... Most of what has been removed at this point
appears to have been the additions which had surrounded the rear and covered the
roof.
If you all know of anyone who would be interested and would be able to pay
this price and get the car moved, feel free to share my email address as a
contact.
I only learned that the demolition was taking place on Thursday or I would
have tried to find someone before the work started...
I certainly cannot do anything about this. I had not even known about the existence of this car until now. It certainly looks like a Hicks car, though. If anyone is seriously interested, please email me and/or Frank immediately, and we can put you in touch. Otherwise, it's another big one that got away.
Update: From my records, the Cadiz Co. ordered a single coach from the company on Mar. 6, 1908. I'm told it was #9. From the pictures, it would appear to have been converted to a combine by the railroad.
Update: From my records, the Cadiz Co. ordered a single coach from the company on Mar. 6, 1908. I'm told it was #9. From the pictures, it would appear to have been converted to a combine by the railroad.
3 comments:
What a find..There seems to be a whole category of "preserved by burial" railroad cars within other structures..like the recent THI&E car inside of a cabin. Makes you wonder what else is out there...Reminds me of a sort of archaeological King Tut's discovery.
Seems like the scrap man thought he had a steel car on his hands, then got frustrated after stripping the interior varnish and only finding a wood frame. Also looks like the first thing he did was break all the window frames and whatever glass they held, from the litter on the floor. Restorable, and a nice dry square body, but who in Kentucky wants to do it?
There's one other possibility:
http://tinyurl.com/lmmkxf6
This is from the 2/28/1902 "Railway Age" and says that a car was sold by Hicks to W.C. White for use on the Cadiz RR. If this shows up in Hicks records as a combine then it may be the car just discovered.
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