Thursday, January 05, 2023

this 1911 Pullman heavyweight passenger car was purchased in 1995 by Al Sauer, who spent 25 years completely restoring the car to its condition in the 1930s. He donated it to the Illinois Railway Museum, a volunteer owned and operated train museum, the nation's largest railway museum,


originally built in 1911 as a 12-1-1 (12-section, 1-drawing room, 1-compartment) sleeping car named Lenover. 
It was generally assigned by Pullman to use on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

In 1931 it was rebuilt in Pullman's "betterment program" as a 10-3 (10-section, 3-double bedroom) sleeping car and renamed Villa Real. 

The car was retired in 1950 but was used by the military between 1951 and 1953 for use carrying troops during the Korean War. 

In 1953, Villa Real was sold to the Wabash as its car 4318 but was leased for use in Mexico. 

It was retired in 1957 and rebuilt by the Wabash into the Decatur, Illinois wreck train foreman's car.

 Later owned by the Norfolk Southern, the car was auctioned off in 1995.

1 comment: