Charleston & Western Carolina No.38, a steel-framed, wood-bodied standard combine came new to the C&WC in approximately 1914 or 1915, based on limited information found so far. It was built by AC&F at the Jackson & Sharp works, apparently along with No.37 which appears identical to 38.

At some time between June 1932 and July 1936 the car was sold, apparently to the Georgia Northern Ry. At some time in the 1940s the car went to the Alton & Southern in Illinois and remained in work train service until being donated to the Museum of Transportation (then the National Museum of Transport) in St. Louis.

The car has been gifted to Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, GA for restoration as an exhibit piece along with our steam locomotive Georgia Northern 107 (4-6-2, Ex FEC 88, ALCo May 1911). I am attempting to narrow down the dates of operation a bit better for documentation purposes.

Any help would be appreciated. If you happen to have copies of the ORERs from the 1910s through 1930s and 1940s there may be listings for this car. MOT has copies from Aug 1915 (no listing), June 1920 (listed), April 1930 (listed), May 1932 (listed), June 1932 (listed) and July 1936 (no passenger equip. listings). If you happen to have any information pertaining to the C&WC and this car it would be helpful. (BTW, I do have a copy of Al Langley's book on the C&WC, which has an in-service photo of 38 on the C&WC, date unknown.)

Thanks for your assistance in this restoration project.

Stephen Syfrett

-- Stephen S. Syfrett (ssyfrett@bellsouth.net), March 23, 2004

Answers

Al Langley, in his "Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Album" confirms that the car was built in 1914. There is also a photo of the car in the book. My annual reports show one combine (number not shown) retired and sold in 1944, leaving eight on the roster. While my collection of reports is not complete, the next retirements shown in the reports in my possession occur in 1952, when the number of combines on the roster was cut from eight to four. It sounds like your car may have left the C&WC in 1944, though I can't prove it.

Bob Hanson

-- Robert H. Hanson (RHanson669@aol.com), April 02, 2004.

Stephen, I have xeroxes of most C&WC RER listings, but the RER stopped carrying passenger car entries about 1932, and then the Official Register of Passenger Equipment didn't start publishing until 1943, so there's a 10-plus year gap in passenger car listings in these publications.

There is probably an accurate way to find out the info, if only you or someone else can travel to Washington and has enough hours: the Archives II building in College Park, Md., has the ICC annual update reports for each railroad's property and equipment changes, and these documents often list car dispositions, acquisitions, and changes in status (e.g., revenue to work service) in detail. I've researched these for ACL and there is a lot of this type detail in that RR's reports, at least.

I do have certain older dates of RERs - contact me off list for more info.

-- Larry Goolsby (clgoolsby@att.net), March 23, 2004.