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Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace with
its distinctive open vestibules or plat-
forms.
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A distinguishing feature of many 19thCentury
railroad cars is an open platform or vestibule on one or both ends. For chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace, this
platform was the ingress and egress to the car.
So the preacher, his wife, and all the parishioners used the open end
platform to enter and leave the car. Clearly, restoration of this missing feature was vital for a successful project, and was fully supported by the major funders including Save Americas Treasures, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Partners in Preservation (Seattle) and the Washington State Heritage Capital Projects Fund
administered by the Washington State Historical Society. And it was one of the most challenging aspects of the project because most of the work had to be performed in a specific sequence between March 2011 and April 2012 to avoid conflict with other work divisions such as carbody rehabilitation, floor repairs, and even the Terne roof installation.
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“Badly deteriorated”was the entry made
in the intial survey. Little remained
in place from the original platform. |
deterioration. Open platforms are even
worse off. Every rain storm, passing
insect, or even passing thief has open access.
For instance, when the car was just a few years old, the pastor woke up
one morning to learn that his milk can had been stolen from the end platform. Apparently that Sunday’s sermon reminded
parishioners that “thou shall not steal!”
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The only surviving section of the
original platform end beam (top) is com-
pared with the new end beam (bottom).
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platform to researchers and rehabilitation specialists as they put their work
plan together. Fortunately, a portion of
the original end beam had been recovered from the seaside where the car was
used as a cabin; it confirmed the basic dimensions. One end of the car
had nearly complete platform and draft sills and those were used to make copies.
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“B” end of car 5 at Novinger, MO.
Image courtesty of Adair County
Historical Society.
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New platform and draft sills are at-
tached to the car with new fasteners.
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team’s next challenge was to find large dimension white oak timbers, the
species originally used for the chapel car platform and draft sills, and
platform end beam. Oak is an unusual
wood for its density, resistance to decay, its hardness, and for the challenges
in drying green wood. A phenomenon
called cell collapse often occurs when forcing large oak timbers to dry and severely
reduces strength. Air drying of green
oak timbers is effective but takes years.
So what to do? Recycled oak beams
from an Amish barn in Ohio!
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A platform end beam is milled on
the Northfield chain mortiser.
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had been stored outside. The timber was
cleaned off and any remaining fasteners were removed. Holes or other minor defects were filled with
epoxy or wood plugs were glued in. Then
the process of preparing the timbers began.
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A large slick was used to clean up the
initial cuts made by the mortise machine
There is always a need for good hand
tools when rehabilitating old wood cars!
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Oliver planer. During this process,
several pockets of insect damage were discovered which had to be treated and
repaired. But in the end, some really
great looking timbers were produced for the chapel car.
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Just a sample of the steel hardware that
is unseen inside and beneath the plat-
forms.
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Was there more to it? Well, yes. One of the unsung heros of the project was Ray M. who repaired or made new the steel tension and tie rods that hold everything together. Original steel was used wherever possible and was connected to new material with a turnbuckle. Ray spent many hours custom machining hardware to fit in tight places where it would not be noticed.
The end railing is missing from the car and will have to be fabricated. Fortunately, the great folks at Prairie Village in South Dakota have allowed the Messenger of Peace researchers to photograph and measure the railings on their chapel car Emmanuel. These railings appear to be identical to the Messenger of Peace but surprisingly a number of other details including the platform end beam design and layout are not exactly the same even though the cars were built to the same plan. The railings will be fabricated when additional project funding is secured.
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The lead rehabilitation specialist Kevin P.
guides the mounting bolts for the plat-
form end beam into the matching holes.
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Platform and draft sills are approximately 16 feet
long. The platform end beam is the width
of the car and weighs over 200 pounds.
So a lot of special handling was required to maneuver the timbers around to the other woodworking machines. And in the end – or at least as of May 2012 – the Messenger
of Peace has regained its platform to preach!
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The completed open vestibule needs one more
detail: an end railing. When more rehabilitation
funding is secured, a replacement railing will be
fabricated |
