Work continues on the Northern Pacific Railway Parlor Car 1049. The John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust has awarded a $7,500 grant to the Northwest Railway Museum (“Museum”) in support of the Northern Pacific Railway Parlor Car 1049 restoration. The award will support fabrication and base coat painting of replacement ceiling panels for all non-original interior ceilings. The completed car will be used to allow the public to experience travel in a historically significant artifact on a historic Northern Pacific branch line.
The parlor car ceilings were originally adorned with a decorative metallic yellow border. This original surviving end panel was discovered behind a false ceiling installed ca 1914 and features the same decorative border used on the ceilings.
Parlor Car 1049 is an all-wood car constructed in 1901 by Pullman for the Northern Pacific Railway and intended for service on the Lake Superior Limited, a train that operated in the very competitive Twin Cities – Duluth corridor.
By 1912, it was moved to Seattle for use as a first class (extra fare) day-use car on the North Coast Limited between Seattle and either Yakima or Spokane, depending on variations in the train schedule. The car was retired in 1939 as the railway moved away from all-wood passenger cars.
The original ceilings were adorned with a decorative trim that was hand-painted onto each panel as seen in this image from 1901.
In 1940, it was purchased by a retired railroad worker and moved by barge to an island on Puget Sound where it was stripped of its trucks and truss rods and adapted for use as a cottage right on an ocean beach. In 2017, it was donated to the Museum and moved by barge to the mainland, and then by house moving dollies to Snoqualmie.
Parlor Car 1049 has been under restoration for more than four years, and work has already restored the car body structure, end platforms, roof, wheels, and some of the mechanical systems including couplers. To date, more than $400,000 has been invested in this rare surviving all-wood Pullman car.
The John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust (“Trust”) was created by John Emery, a native of Chicago, and a lover of the classic passenger trains of America. The Trust was founded as a way to support Mr. Emery’s interest in the passenger trains of the 1920s through the 1950s. The Trust operates as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) foundation under the Internal Revenue Code. The Trust focuses on helping to re-create and preserve, to the extent possible, the rail passenger travel experience as it was in the U. S. from approximately 1920 through 1960, preserve and restore to working order rolling stock and other working artifacts from the “Golden Age” of the U. S. rail passenger service, and ensuring that organizations offer the general public an opportunity to ride historically-significant equipment over historic rail lines.
