The Museum continues to grow. With two barns in place, much of the collection is now protected from the elements, and volunteers are busy working on restoring the Museum's vast array of equipment. The Museum is still acquiring more equipment to build its collection. Articles on these pages are based on information gleaned from the Bimonthly NORM Publication, The Northern Light and other authoritative sources. Articles will be added on a continuing basis. Check the archive page for past news items.

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• Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Combine # 1088 to be used as interim Visitor's Center.  (02/08)

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For years, NORM has owned a combine car of dubious origin - possibly an Akron, Canton & Youngstown or Wheeling & Lake Erie item. The museum acquired the car from a private collector that had rescued it from the scrapper's torches in the mid 1960s. Intending to use the car for a shop, the owners had it moved to a siding at Navarre, Ohio, where it remained until 1980 when the museum assumed ownership.

Our interest in the car was for a Visitor's Center. Since the car was last in company service on the railroad, its interior spaces had already been modified for this service. As a result, we did not feel we were going to be compromising a historical piece of equipment by configuring its interior to serve the needs of a museum visitors center.

After being acquired by the museum, the car was moved in a train to a siding at Medina for storage where it remained until 1984. It was then moved by rail a few miles south to a B & O siding at Chippewa Lake, where it was stored with several other pieces of museum equipment. By 1991, the siding had been isolated from the main line, now operated by the CSX. The car was moved the final few miles to museum property by truck later that year.

Upon arrival it was placed on an outdoor storage track with several other pieces of equipment. Over the next few years barns were raised and track work gradually snaked its way to the storage lines. Much of the equipment was moved either to the barns for preservation or to the dead line, but the combine remained on the storage track. Exposed to the elements, its condition slowly declined.

A recent assessment was made of the car's condition and the decision was made to put aside the plans for its use as a Visitor’s Center. The combine was to be put up for sale. A renewed effort was made to properly identify the car so that it could be sold. Through the collective efforts of several groups and individuals, much of the car's long and varied history has finally been traced.

When found in the scrap yard, the car was lettered with a Norfolk & Western M-of-W number. Close examination also revealed P & R stenciled on the car. As it turns out, the car was built in 1911 by Harlan and Hollingworth, a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Car Company, for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad as a day coach.

It is of composite construction, having steel under frame, truss rods and substructure supporting the wood framing and exterior sheathing. Like many passenger cars of that era, it featured a clerestory roof constructed of wood and canvas. It was equipped with trucks of four wheels outside bolster design, which it still rests on today. Originally built as a coach, additional sheathing and baggage doors were added to one end sometime after it left the Reading, resulting in its current configuration as a combine.

In the mid 1920’s, when the Reading began replacing these composite cars with all steel cars, the older cars went to several lines. Car # 58 was sold to the Mississippian Railway. During World War II, it returned north to the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway. After passenger service ended on the line, the car was reassigned to company service and the original interior was removed.

When the Norfolk & Western took over control of the line the car was renumbered for their maintenance division, where it remained in service until 1964. As the Norfolk & Western went on to absorb several other smaller lines it became necessary to trim its growing maintenance fleet, At that time the car was sold to the Luntz Scrap Yard in Canton, Ohio.

Although it seemed like disposing of it was the best option, a suitable home for the car could not be found. The Board decided once again to go ahead with the plans to make the orphan our interim Visitor’s Center.

In spring of 2007, a group of volunteers began stripping off its decayed wooden siding. In October of 2007 the car was put inside the Bennett barn to complete needle scaling and priming rusted metal. At the same time 2x4s were cut for flooring. Follow the saga of our emerging Visitor’s Center!

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