Luxury is back on track
Blacksmith in Ephrata, Pa., takes on restoration of a historic, deluxe railcar.
EPHRATA, Pa. - People driving through rural Lancaster County expect to see rolling fields, silos, cows, horses.
Chances are they're not expecting a county farm to be home to an 83-foot-long, 208,000-pound railcar.
However, if you drive along Parkview Heights Road in Ephrata Township, that's what you'll see atop steel rails behind Andrew M. Stauffer's barn.
Stauffer, the owner of Lindenhof Blacksmith Shop, and his work crew are restoring a 120-year-old luxury passenger car that belonged to railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler. The car is now owned by railroad enthusiast Carter Reese of Wyomissing.
The car is the last of six, numbered 90 through 95, built in 1888 by Jackson & Sharp Co. of Wilmington for use on Flagler's private train, Reese said.
All six of the luxurious Flagler cars still exist, including one at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Fla. Flagler, a business partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil and builder of the Breakers in Palm Beach - one of America's most famous resort hotels - also founded the Florida East Coast Railway.
"The Florida East Coast railroad opened up south Florida and operated rail service all the way down into Key West," Reese said.
He bought the car - he didn't disclose its price - from the Wilkes-Barre Redevelopment Authority several months ago, he said.
In the 1970s, the car and several other passenger cars and boxcars were converted into a restaurant/nightclub/lounge as part of Wilkes-Barre's urban development.
The business closed about 15 years ago, and the cars were left to deteriorate. The city's redevelopment board took over the site and wanted the cars sold, Reese said, "with the stipulation that they be moved very promptly."
Transported by the Morris Kreitz company of Wyomissing, the No. 95 car made the journey from Wilkes-Barre to Lancaster County in "four or five days."
When the railcar arrived in Ephrata on Jan. 21, Parkview Heights Road was closed for five hours while two cranes moved it to the specially laid tracks.
Reese, who collects antiques, chose Lindenhof Blacksmith Shop to do the work because, he said, he was a customer of Stauffer's. Besides, he said, Stauffer and his crew "are all train enthusiasts."
Stauffer's neighbors certainly know this. A train whistle mounted inside his barn blows at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The work on the No. 95 car includes replacing its rotting wooden roof and covering it with a seamless copper roof.
The sides of the car, made of fir, will be replaced with more weather-resistant cypress, and missing or broken metal parts will be replaced.
The elegantly handpainted ceiling will be restored, as will the plush furniture, some of which was used by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson when they rode in the car.
"It was clearly a private car for an aristocratic clientele," Reese said.
The restored car will have modern heat and air-conditioning systems.
Reese said he expected the restoration to take about nine months.
In the meantime, he will consider his options for the car.
"My principal goal was to restore the car," Reese said. "I'd like to see it return to rail use. It's completely capable of traveling around the country on rails at high speeds."