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Getting back on track

Pullman cars return to rails at Everett Railroad station

By Holly Claycomb 7 min read

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Two 1920s-era Pullman cars were placed on the tracks at the Everett Railroad station on Wednesday morning, bringing with them a storied past from their former life with the Fillmore & Western Railway Co., a California railway known as "Home of the movie trains."

The two cars will be overhauled, refurbished, painted the original "Pullman green" and added to the Everett Railroad's excursion trains.

Michelle Moyer, excursions manager, said the railroad already has three completely restored coach cars in use and another three that are in use, but have yet to be fully restored.

The new additions will become a parlor car, expected to be ready to roll by November, and a dining car, with plans for it to be in operation sometime in 2023.

For railfans, the cars will add even more to the already interesting history of the Everett Railroad, purchased by Alan Maples in the early 1980s as salvage from Everett, Bedford County.

"The story is he took his college fund and bought the railroad," Moyer said with a grin.

For his part, Maples said it was a long time ago.

"I don't remember what I was thinking," he said with a slight smile and shake of his head.

While watching cranes from Bryce Saylor and Sons Inc. lift the two Pullmans from flat train cars to the tracks, Maples said he was always interested in railroading as a child.

He thought it would be a good investment when pieces of the Everett Railroad came up for sale, and after purchasing unused track from Conrail, he started hauling freight on the short line.

Over the years he's added excursion trains into the mix, taking passengers to Roaring Spring aboard Santa Trains and to see the fall landscape. Easter and pumpkin excursions have been added, as well as ice cream specials.

"We do a lot of family events," Moyer said, adding that this year, the railroad will welcome several school groups on an ice cream train. The train will stop at the Roaring Spring station and the students will disembark, walk around the Spring Dam and enjoy their bag lunches.

The day will be topped off with ice cream before the ride back to the station.

With the new parlor and dining cars, the railroad hopes to expand the excursion offerings to include a wine and cheese outing, among others.

"We're branching out to let mom and dad have some evenings, as well," Moyer said. "I would love to do a Valentine's Day Sweetheart Train."

Excursions were sidelined for all of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and started up again last June, Moyer said.

Since they restarted, participation has been up over 50% more than the 2019 trips.

"We sold out the pumpkin train in four days," she said, and one of her posts about an excursion garnered 1.8 million views. "It went viral."

Moyer said the plan is to start small on the new excursions and "work our way up to be successful."

Freight runs continue

While the railroad is expanding its excursion offerings, it continues to run freight, Maples said.

The line serves businesses located along its tracks in the Claysburg and Martinsburg area, with Maples crediting the rail line in Claysburg for bringing Rockland Manufacturing into the former Harbison Walker industrial site.

"They bought the site for the rail service," he said.

Without rail service, he said towns are limited in their development efforts. At one time, rail lines went through Claysburg and on to Imler, Bedford, Everett and beyond. The tracks are long gone and now businesses in those areas depend on tractor-trailers to transport goods.

The Everett Railroad connects with Norfolk Southern, he said, and that connection allows goods to be transported by rail all across the country.

Appvion's closing in Roaring Spring pushed the Everett Railroad to pivot more to excursions, Maples said, as the paper mill was one of his biggest customers.

"We're sorry they're gone," he said.

Heavy lifting

Looking at his new acquisitions sitting on the tracks, Maples said he purchased the cars last fall and had been working out the logistics to get them home. Because the cars were only used for short distances in California, it was decided the best way to bring them cross country would be as cargo on flat cars.

Weighing in at more than 160,000 pounds each, the cars required two cranes, one positioned at either end, each lifting half the load.

Tracy Saylor, co-owner with his brother, Greg, of Bryce Saylor and Sons Inc., said the two cranes used to lift the cars onto the tracks were more than sufficient, with each rated at 110,000-pound capacity.

The biggest issue when lifting train cars -- of which Saylor does a lot being in a railroad town -- is distributing the weight and protecting the cars. Boards were strategically placed to keep the cables off the roofs and to prevent bending of the metal, Saylor said. Wind is also a big factor, he said, but despite a little rain, Wednesday was a relatively calm day, he said.

As train aficionados gathered nearby to watch, the two cranes worked in unison, lifting the first car a few feet as the Everett Railroad's engine pulled the flat car from underneath. Then the Pullman was slowly lowered to the tracks, pushed and pulled into alignment while it seemingly floated in the air above the rails.

After the first car was moved down the tracks out of the way, the process was repeated with the dining car.

For Saylor, bringing the cars down to the rails was just another day on the job.

"Some people play with small trains, I play with big trains," he said with a laugh.

Pieces of history

After taking photos of the unloading operation, Maples pulled up a picture on his phone of the now-green dining car that was red when it was featured in a movie, "Water for Elephants."

It's the more interesting of the two cars, Maples said, and according to rail records, is known as the Powhatan Cafe Parlor.

Built by the Pullman Co. in 1928 for the Richmond, Fredricksburg and Potomac Railroad, the car was named after an American Indian chief who founded the Powhatan Confederacy and whose daughter, Pocahontas, married John Rolfe, an English colonist and settler of the Jamestown Colony.

"This luxurious 'Powhatan' car served for many years on the East Coast, hosting senators, congressmen and who's who on its daily 'track' between Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.," according to the Fillmore & Western Railway Co.

In the mid 1950s, The Royal American Shows carnival purchased the Powhatan for use as the "Pie Car," circus slang for a dining car.

In the early 1980s, it was sold and used as an ice cream parlor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, until 1990.

It was then purchased by Fillmore & Western for use in movies and "lovingly restored to its yesteryear grace," according to information on the Fillmore & Western website.

The car made its movie debut in Disney's "Tall Tales of Pecos Bill" and has been in a variety of Hollywood productions, including "Seabiscuit" as well as "Water for Elephants."

As part of the Fillmore & Western lineup, it also was used for daytime dining and murder mystery excursions, and there is a rumor that it is haunted by a "cowboy entity," the website states.

While the second car doesn't have quite the glamorous background as the "Powhatan," it is older.

The "Rancho Sespe" was built in 1922, weighs 80 tons and is 71 feet long, versus the 87-foot Powhatan that weighs in at 86 tons.

According to Railway Preservation News, the Rancho Sespe is named for a large Fillmore ranch and began life on the Colorado & Southern Railway.

Moyer said she's excited at the prospect of decorating the cars in the proper time period.

"I did some Googling," she said. "There's a lot of floral design."

The parlor car will be furnished as a plush lounge, Moyer said, while the dining car will include a kitchen as well as tables and chairs.

They'll be "first class cars," complete with air conditioning and heaters, and be furnished in typical 1920s rail car fashion.

The cars are now headed to the Everett Railroad's Duncansville shop, where the work begins.

"We'll strip them down and bring them back to life," Moyer said.

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