The Bomb-Proof Streetcar

A long-time IRM member and old friend of mine, Wally Weart, recently invited me out to Cheyenne, Wyoming to examine the only existing narrow-gauge interurban car from the Denver and Intermountain.  He had saved the car from being scrapped, and helped persuade the City of Arvada (a suburb of Denver) to purchase it.  The body has been sent to the Cheyenne area to be restored by Mike Pannell, a noted car restoration worker in the area.  First, let's see his unique work facility.

Mike has acquired an Atlas ICBM missile silo out in the desert in the Cheyenne area.  The silo was built about 1960 and decommissioned in 1965.  The Atlas was in service for only a few years, being replaced by the Titan missile, which was based in underground bunkers.

Here's a better view of the silo.  The roof would be blasted open if the missile were to be fired, supported on these steel frames.  But essentially we have here a concrete warehouse, which provides a secure home for several railroad carbodies.  Now if only we could build carbarns like this:

And this is the D&IM .04.  It was built in 1911 as a standard-gauge car, #11, and later converted to narrow gauge.  The D&IM for some reason gave its narrow-gauge equipment decimal numbers, so this car became .04, one of its many unique features.

Because there are no narrow-gauge trucks available, among other reasons, the city plans to restore the car as purely a static artifact, and it will be displayed inside and protected from the weather.

Near the end of its career, the railroad rebuilt it with this unusual two-window end at the front, and this is the configuration to which it will be restored.

Mike has been rebuilding the roof and many other parts of the structure, and there's a lot of new wood.

Fortunately, they were able to acquire a complete set of seats from another car in this series.  This would be nearly impossible to reproduce:

There were plans to put the body on a pair of old Burlington waycar trucks, but they have instead decided to fabricate a pair of narrow-gauge trucks that look correct, although perhaps not operational.

This is the rear end, with its original three-window design:

And here's a group photo: (L to R) myself, Wally Weart, Pete West (a member of the Rocky club), Kim Grant (from the City of Arvada), and Mike Pannell.  A good time was had by all.

Mike has several other projects in progress.  I took pictures of a few of them, but I won't try to describe them all.

This is certainly an interesting restoration project, and I hope to keep in touch until it's finished.

William T. Van Dorn

The founder and owner of the W.T. Van Dorn Company, as well as the inventor of the Van Dorn coupler, was William Tolbert Van Dorn. He was born in LaPorte, Indiana on September 26, 1843 and lived in Miami County, Indiana until he went west sometime around 1864. He went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867 and worked for the UP until 1872. He lived in Ogden, Utah until 1880, when he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. He had three children: Edith, born 1885; Herbert, born 1887; and William, born 1891. He died on November 29, 1918 at the age of 75 following an automobile accident.

Included in the collection of Van Dorn company items that was donated to IRM by Larry Larson were a few documents relating to William Van Dorn's life. First was something of an autobiography he wrote about his life prior to moving to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1880:

There is also an account written about 1910 by W.T. Van Dorn about the history behind Van Dorn Park. This piece of park land still exists - link - map

There is a typewritten obituary, the text of which ended up appearing in the Nebraska State Journal in Lincoln on December 1, 1918. This was on legal-size paper, which my scanner can't handle, so I retyped it. No author is noted on either the typewritten copy or the copy as printed in the paper.

THE ROMANCE OF A PIONEER.

W.T. VAN DORN HAD AN INTERESTING CAREER.

Helped to Build the Union Pacific Railroad and Invented Himself Into a Fortune.

W.T. Van Dorn, a pioneer of Lincoln, Nebr. died in Chicago on Friday as the result of an automobile accident two weeks ago. He will be buried in Wyuka cemetery in this city on Tuesday next at an hour which will be announced later.

Mr. Van Dorn had an interesting career. About thirty years ago he came to The Journal office with a model of a new automatic coupler for railroad cars which he was sure would make his fortune. About five years ago he came to The Journal again, and showed to the same member of the staff his latest invention, a corrugated steel end for railroad box cars. The first invention, the Van Dorn coupler, had made him wealthy. The steel box car end was certain to result in the building of a great industry. It was halted by the war, but the future of this invention seems to be as safe as that of the coupler.

Fifty-one years ago a young man on an Indiana farm, fired by stories of gold discoveries in the west, threw down his tools, and financed by his father, started for Virginia City, Mont. Six years later he became a resident of Lincoln. For twenty-five years he lived in this city; then he removed to Chicago. In Chicago, less than 200 miles from the farm where he spent the early years of his life, his fortune was made through the car coupler that he invented while a resident of Lincoln.

The man was W.T. Van Dorn. Older citizens of Lincoln will remember him as a very active, but quiet and unassuming man. Van Dorn Street, on the extreme south, was named after him.

Mr. Van Dorn was a good many years reaching Montana, and the gold mine he set out to find yet remains undiscovered. When he left Logansport, Indiana, with two middle-aged men, his father gave him a yoke of cattle, a good wagon and provisions enough to last a year. These were shipped by rail to Quincy, from which the party ferried the Mississippi. Then began the long trek across Missouri and Iowa. The party crossed the Missouri river at Nebraska City and joined with an emmigrant train for Denver, by way of Old Fort Kearney. At that time there were but a few persons and no town on the present site of Lincoln. The men were here boiling salt, and when the party crossed the Salt they heard of the big salt basin twelve miles to the south.

The Indians were on the war path that year, and the party was halted at Denver. They arrived there on the 25th of June. There were no houses on the present site of Denver, except a few sod structures and tents located west of Cherry creek. The Indianians spent the summer prospecting in the Rockies, and came near freezing to death when they essayed the return trip.

In 1865 the first locomotive and cars came up the Missouri on a steamboat from St. Joseph, and the construction of the Union Pacific began. Mr. Van Dorn entered the service of the road in the car department, and very soon after was sent west with the construction gang. He was at the west end until the road was completed. Most of the time was at Wasatch Mountains. So great was the haste to finish the road that the officials did not wait for the permanent right of way tunnels and high grades, but constructed five switch backs, which reached the bottom of Echo canyon, and from there the line was extended to Promontory Point [sic], seventy-five miles west of Ogden. It was here that the golden spike was driven by Oakes Ames, president of the Union Pacific, and Leland Stanford, president of the Southern Pacific [sic].

The dramatic incident in the western railroad building was vividly recalled by Mr. Van Dorn. The golden spike was removed very soon and a steel spike inserted in its place. Everbody who was present and many who were not insisted upon a piece of the "last tie" as a souvenir, and it had to be replaced many times before the demand was met. Mr Van Dorn remained with the company for three years and then entered business for himself.

His various trips across the plains familiarized him with the Nebraska country, and he felt certain that it would soon be well peopled. Lincoln had meanwhile been born and its location convinced him that in time it would be a great commercial center, knowing as he did the conditions of the surrounding country. In 1870 he came to Lincoln by way of the stage coach from Nebraska City, a means of transportation that brought most of the Lincoln pioneers. At the time the Burlington had reached Ashland.

Mr. Van Dorn spent a week or ten days looking over different locations and ended by buying ten acres lying on the hill south of the city and just south of the present Van Dorn street. He immediately began to improve it. Later he bought forty acres, known as Van Dorn Park.

Through this purchase his name is permanently connected with the city of Lincoln in Van Dorn Street, Van Dorn Park and the Van Dorn pumping station.

***

And there is this obituary, which appeared in Electric Railway Journal and does a better job of describing Van Dorn's significance in the traction field:

William T. Van Dorn, inventor, and founder of the Van Dorn Coupler Company, died at his home in Chicago, on Nov. 29, at the age of seventy-five years. It is believed that an automobile accident on Nov. 17 in which Mr. Van Dorn was injured was directly responsible for his death. Mr. Van Dorn was very well known in the electric railway field. Early in life he became a student of mechanics and while employed in the mechanical department of the earlier steam railroads gave a great deal of attention to the design of car couplers, and it is a matter of record that he was one of the originators of the coupler head which since has been made the M.C.B. standard. When the electric railways were first talked of Mr. Van Dorn had a vision of the future in store for the electric railway car. In 1885 he moved to Chicago, organized the Van Dorn Coupler Company and started manufacturing the Van Dorn coupler. Up to the time of his death Mr. Van Dorn was in active charge of the coupler business. During his life he was granted many patents on new car coupler ideas, and only recently he announced the perfection of a coupler which not only automatically connects cars mechanically but also connects the air and electric lines by the same operation. He also was the inventor of a steel end for freight cars and of a sub-floor for refrigerator cars which are in great demand. Herbert E. Van Dorn, oldest son, who in recent years has been closely associated with the business of the Van Dorn Coupler Company, will succeed his father as active head of the company.

Click to return to the W.T. Van Dorn Collection index page

The interurban in autumn

 

Frank writes...

Sunday was the first time I can recall - and possibly even the first time ever, though it seems unlikely - that we ran the CA&E wood cars in regular service in October. It was surely the 319's first time carrying passengers during October since its return to Illinois in 2010. Usually our only October special event is the Pumpkin Train, and that utilizes specially-decorated cars selected because they have working heat. But this weekend turned out to be something of an ad hoc special event dubbed Fall Festival. It came about when the Steam Department decided to run the Shay for a final weekend (steam in October at IRM also being very unusual) and then Harold suggested making the weekend into something a bit more expansive than the usual two-train setup.

It seemed to me that it worked out great. There were good crowds both days, the weather was beautiful, and the fall colors were nice to see. I usually don't operate in October, given the limited number of trains we usually have in service, so that was a bit of a treat.

The Shay performed admirably both days and, as always, was the main attraction. There were three trains on the main line; besides the steam-hauled coach train there was a two-car train of spam cans plus the 309 and 319.

Originally the CA&E steel cars were scheduled, but I asked Jim West whether he had an objection to swapping in the wood cars and he said it would be fine. So there we go, rare autumn mileage for these cars. My conductor was the nattily attired Henry Vincent but I'm afraid I failed to get a crew photo. It was "all hands on deck" for the car shop, as Joel was conductor on the coach train while Greg and Good Nick crewed the CTA train.

The 309 doesn't usually get to see the trees change color. The last time we had these cars out on the railroad after Members Day was three years ago when a (never released) movie called The Letter was being filmed. That was at the end of November, though. Regardless, it seemed like everyone had a great time and I hope that the museum considers adding this event to the schedule again next year.

After we put the train away, I had barely enough time before losing daylight to put a coat of fresh Bankers Grey on the front end of the 18. This is significant progress, as it's the first patch of "final" finish paint to go onto the car. It was applied using a trim roller, which gives an even - if not quite mirror-smooth - finish. The color match was provided by Walt Stoner and Steve Heister of the Northern Ohio Railway Museum, so we thank them for providing this information. There's a bit more Bondo work that needs to be done behind the bumper but for all intents and purposes the dash of the car is now painted and sealed up. One thing you might notice, in the above photo, is that the right side dash panel we are looking at still has four screws in it where the advertisement frame was once attached. We will need to replace this at some point, as the car would have had this fitted during the mid-1940s, so if anyone knows of an original that could be used as a pattern please let us know.

Richard was in the shop, working on the CLRV truck, and late in the day he was joined by Greg. Here we see Greg (left) and Richard trying to break loose a balky bolt holding on part of the gear box. This is a mono-motor truck, so a single motor is mounted centered in the truck and parallel to the rail - it's the black octagonal-looking case visible behind the grey lateral framing member. That motor drives each axle via a gearbox using a collar arrangement. On the near axle, the gearbox is centered (with a blue shop rag lying on top of it), the collar is to the right, and on the near side is the brake disc. Weird. And in other exciting news, Good Nick was working on rebuilding an S-16 governor for car 453. We actually are not entirely sure what type of governor these cars were fitted with when they were delivered, but the 451 and 460 both came to us from Trolleyville with S-16's so that's the best guess.

The Van Dorn Girder Plate Company, Inc.

The W.T. Van Dorn Company was best known for its couplers, which saw wide use in the traction industry around the turn of the century. It was also known - if someone infamously - for its "Target" steel boxcar ends, described here. However an affiliated company, formed by William Van Dorn and apparently sited on South Paulina Street alongside the W.T. Van Dorn Company, was the Van Dorn Girder Plate Company.

Among the materials recently donated to IRM by Larry Logan was a manila folder with advertising materials and some biographical information on W.T. Van Dorn himself (watch for that in a later post). The advertising materials, which are shown below, include advertisements both for boxcar ends (of the "double target" variety that came later in the 1910s and was marginally more successful than the original "Target" end) and for movable flooring for refrigerated cars. It's obvious that Van Dorn was looking for products that might expand its presence in the railroad freight car construction industry.

The collection includes several two-sided advertisements on heavy card, larger than an index card, with an illustration and brief description on one side and "selling copy" on the reverse. This card advertises Van Dorn Universal Auxiliary Flooring, basically a movable floor that you can drop into a refrigerated car. Reefers normally have slatted floors to permit air circulation but this allows you to raise the slatted floor up to the ceiling so that you can clean underneath it or use the car as a normal solid-floor boxcar. This version has all-steel framing.

If you're a cheapskate, Van Dorn will also be pleased to sell you the all-wood version, supported by 2"x4" scantlings dressed on all sides.

This fellow is showing how the floor can be raised or lowered, not to mention stopped at any intermediate point. This can be done one-handed, so don't pay any attention to the fact that the guy in the picture is using both his hands. He's just grandstanding.

If you're not sold on ratcheting your floor up and down, you can instead choose to just lift it. At least I guess that's how this works; Van Dorn Sectional Flooring is offered in short sections that are lifted (by muscle, I suppose) into the ceiling of the car as soon as the car is unloaded, allowing the subfloor to be cleaned and allowing access by wheeled carts. This product is noted as being in use on the I.C.

The advertising cards mention a demonstration installation that can be seen and examined at the Van Dorn plant. Sure enough, there's a photo of this "showroom model." And there are several photos of what appears to be a portable, suitcase-sized demonstration model of the wooden flooring:

This model would be kind of interesting if it had survived, but chances are pretty good that it didn't. Can you imagine something like this showing up in a random antique store and the proprietor trying to guess what in the world it is?

It's not clear how many railroads actually installed any of this Van Dorn flooring, but the Illinois Central at least tried it out. This photo shows the interior of IC 40' long reefer #53606 with its Van Dorn flooring down at floor level and ready for use.

And here's the companion photo showing the flooring stowed up in the ceiling so that the car's sub-floor can be cleaned. And maybe the idea was also that the car could now be used for general freight, I'm not sure.

This nicely done drawing shows exactly how the flooring was used, showing it both sitting flat on the floor and also in its stowed position in the ceiling. You can see how much space in the average ice-cooled refrigerator car was taken up by the ice bunkers at the ends.

There are also several advertising cards showing the "double target" end, or as it was called by the company, the Two-Piece Sectional Corrugated Steel End. "Target End" has a nicer ring to it but they didn't have much luck selling those.

This card describes the two-piece end, describes the concentric portion as an "anchor truss," and notes that the steel used is 3/16" thick plate.

This is kind of interesting. A batch of boxcars with underframes and steel ends installed, but no sides or roofs, is shown in the picture looking rather like bulkhead flat cars ahead of their time. The original Van Dorn "Target End" seemed like it was designed primarily to be retrofitted to older wooden cars, but this advertisement seems geared much more towards generating orders for new construction.

Here's an interior view, with the description pointing out that the steel car end will help stiffen and support the wooden corner posts of the body. The cars in these images were built in 1914 and it would be a few decades before all-steel boxcar construction became common. At this time, most boxcars were almost entirely wood from the floor up and single-sheathed construction with steel framing members was state-of-the-art.

And voila, the final product. This was a series of 500 cars built for the Central of Georgia and was, to my knowledge, the only large order of boxcars ever fitted with Van Dorn ends.

Finally, a peek behind the scenes at the Marketing Department. Here we see a draft for a Van Dorn advertisement including Target Ends, Two-Piece Corrugated Ends, Sectional Flooring, and Universal Auxiliary Flooring - all of the Van Dorn Girder Plate Company's greatest hits circa 1915 or so. The fun thing is that it's got corrections scribbled on it - "ventilation" and "transportation" are misspelled, the word "materially" should be dropped, a few other notations, possibly from a Mr. Cornell.

The business offices of the Van Dorn Girder Plate Company, at least at one point, were at 608 South Dearborn in Chicago. There's a large 1920s-looking office building there now but I'm not sure whether it's the same building that the Van Dorn salesmen would have recognized. Penmanship really is a dying art.

Click to return to the W.T. Van Dorn Collection index page