More Cars That Got Away

Our friend Bill Stewart recently found some interesting archival material to share with us.

He writes:

1) The fuzzy qualities of this photo of our late friend, CA&E 318, seem to suggest that this is a historic image.  To the contrary: it was taken at Westport, Indiana in the 1960s.  The car is spotted on the “main line”of the former Indiana Railway Museum -- the final few yards of the Milwaukee Road’s Indiana extension, which interchanged here with the New York Central’s Louisville-Elkhart secondary main line, visible to the left.  (Ed.: The 318 was heavily damaged in transit in 1971, and purchased by IRM in 1977 to be scrapped for parts.  The parts have been used to restore other cars.)

2) In a photo that has to date to 1969, for reasons to be provided below, the friendly face of the 318 leans over to smile at the happy crowd on the platform of Penn Central business car 180.  But how could that be?

Explanation:  In 1967 or 1968, the late Brigadier General Robert Moorhead, Commander of the Indiana Army National Guard, began a private initiative to save his favorite passenger train, the NYC’s Cincinnati-Indianapolis-Chicago “Deluxe All-Coach Streamliner,” the James Whitcomb Riley.  Moorhead created the Riley Booster Club, Inc. as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, hired part-time staff, paid for newspaper and broadcast promotions, and began buying surplus NYC rolling stock from the nearby Beech Grove Shops to use as excursion cars attached to the regular Riley consist.  Moorhead owned Central Publishing, Inc., a large Indianapolis printing company, and printed promotional materials for the Riley that were distributed through travel agencies and other sites.  To share information and human resources, the Booster Club came to operate as an extension of the Indiana Railway Museum.  Eventually the lightweight car fleet filled two tracks at the former Pullman Company Capitol Avenue Coach Yard, adjacent to Indianapolis Union Station.

In one of the newly-formed Penn Central’s many quirky moves, Pennsylvania Railroad business car 180 (equipped, interestingly, with four-wheel trucks instead of the usual six-wheel variety typically specified for heavyweight cars) was repainted in the PC’s new green-and-white paint scheme, assigned to a New York-based VP, then retired within a year and laid up at Beech Grove.  General Moorhead purchased the car for a nominal sum and stored it temporarily at Westport while arrangements were being finalized for use of the Capitol Avenue Coach Yard.  The car later operated on several long-distance excursions, including a memorable 1970 Indianapolis-St. Louis round trip on the rear of PC trains 31 and 30, the Spirit of St. Louis.

In this Westport scene, however, it is serving only as a viewing platform for a crowd that came to ride a two-mile round trip aboard the 318, pulled by a little 0-4-0 tank engine.  Even the smallest of those kids is now a “mid-century” adult, age 50+.

After the arrival of Amtrak, operational changes made private car operation from Indianapolis increasingly impractical.  General Moorhead sold the 180 to an individual in Kansas.  But that did not turn out well, and the car was later scrapped.  Too bad, because as older photos indicate, it was once a most handsome car.