bcp Wrote:
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> Interesting to see the inside sheathing only went
> halfway up the wall.
>
> Bruce
That was normal for these cars throughout their life. When the C&TS made them into passengers cars, they simply opened up the outer siding.
As Kelly pointed out the car seems to have been at least partially loaded with ore concentrate.
The story goes that the brakeman on a freight train named Alva Lyons forgot to line the switch back to the main line and the passenger train pulled by 166 and run by Owen "Spud" House ran into the siding at track speed and you can see the results. Both Al and Spud survived the ordeal and had long careers on the NG. Spud retired around 1953 as the #1 seniority engineer (running the Durango switcher) and Alva became a longtime conductor on the Silverton Branch retiring in the 1960's.