Greg Kennelly, a blog reader who's interested in the Pacific Great Eastern, sends in a question regarding the origins of a PGE business car that was bought from the Central Locomotive and Car Works, successor to Hicks Locomotive and Car. I don't have any data that would help, but some of you out there are always coming up with answers to difficult questions, so here goes:
I am always hoping to find information regarding an official (business) car
which Patrick Welch, one of the directors/contractors for the Pacific Great
Eastern Railway, purchased from Central Locomotive & Car Works in 1914. I
have managed to piece together the following information from various
sources:
'Business (Private) Car “LILLOOET”:
The Pacific Great Eastern Equipment
Record held at the British Columbia Archives shows this car was purchased
second-hand from Central Locomotive & Car Works of Chicago, Illinois for a
total of $9570.28 and was received by the railway on April 20, 1914. Private
car “A-1" shows in barge records as arriving at Squamish (Newport) aboard a
Great Northern barge on Monday, June 1, 1914. All the original equipment of the
railway was owned by Patrick Welch, who sold his interest in the equipment to
the Pacific Great Eastern Equipment Company in 1915. When the
developers/contractors failed to meet their obligations to shareholders in 1918,
the Provincial Government was required to honour its guarantee to bond holders
and, by default, became the owner of both the railway and the Equipment
Company. The 1919 Sessional Papers of the B.C. Legislature include a reference
to ”Business Car ‘Lillooet’, A-1", G.T. Livingston, Resident Engineer,
prepared a drawing of the car dated May 25, 1920 at Squamish. The car first
appears in the Official Railway Equipment Register in December 1920 and the
P.G.E. Accounts show no further capital expenditure related to this car as of
June 30, 1924. A British Columbia Department of Railways record dated February
20, 1926 indicates that “Old Private Car Lillooet” was to have its 6-wheel
trucks replaced by the 4-wheel trucks from the wrecked Hall-Scott gas car #103
and be converted into a 104-seat open observation car. The car was converted to
Open Observation #15 (1st) in September - October 1926 and is first listed as
such in the Official Railway Equipment Register for October 1926 with a capacity
of 104 passengers. Its length is not specified. Observation #15 (1st) was
scrapped March 26, 1936.'
A scan of the 1920 drawing of the car is attached. In over 30 years of
sporadic searching, the only photograph of the car I have come across is a
general view of Squamish yard, circa 1919, in which an unidentified passenger
car whose appearance matches the 1920 drawing shows in the distance against the
East wall of the roundhouse. I would be most interested in any suggestions you,
or anyone else, may have regarding the origins of this car.
No comments:
Post a Comment