By Mike Manson
Persistence pays off. Several years ago Jeff Millerick found Boxcar 2 in Bodega Bay. It still wears its P&SR medallion on each side. The car had been converted into a summer house but it now sits abandoned. Jeff repeatedly tried to contact the owners, who live in the Central Valley. They kept the taxes paid, but their mailing address was a post office box and they had an unlisted telephone number. They never replied to any of his letters. But out of the blue, one owner called Jeff in late September. The house had just been condemned by the Sonoma County Building Department and must be torn down immediately. Jeff negotiated with the owner to have No. 2 donated to our Society. No. 2 was built in 1904 by the Holman Car Company of San Francisco. Because the railroad's boxcars were even-numbered, No. 2 is actually the railroad's first boxcar. It is relatively small, only 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. The original trucks had 24-inch-diameter wheels. These were later swapped out for trucks with the normal 33-inch wheels. Like our other donated cars, this is a 'good news/bad news' situation. Good news: we get the car. More good news: Bodega Bay is only 27 miles from Petaluma and the car is in relatively good condition, with much of its hardware. Bad news: we get the car 'as is, where is', and it must be moved 'right now!' While I am writing this article we are within the 10-day period to get a demolition permit that is good for 30 days. And we must obtain notify the local air pollution control district that we are demolishing the house and will look for any asbestos in the structure. There is a lot of building material to strip off and haul away. All of these tasks will cost the Society money to accomplish. But when we are done the Society will have P&SR 2 as part of its collection of historic rail cars and couple it to P&SR Caboose 1.

Direct Webpage comments and suggestions to NWPRRHS Webmaster

This page was created on November 5, 2012
and last updated on November 5, 20121