Paducah Geep ICG 7735 at Tuscaloosa, AL, 04/1984, formerly SLSF GP-7 585. She went on to enter the Paducah & Louisville's roster.
May have been a WWII troop sleeper that was repurposed. But then again they were a bit longer and had different ends.
Definitely ex-ViA exx-CN steam generator car. They repurposed boxcars for that purpose. The express-like trucks confirm it. CN had a whole gaggle of those and VIA inherited a lot of them. It may have been gutted to use as a MOW tool car or something like that.
They do operate the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway https://brscenic.com/ However, I'm not sure this old ex VIA heater car has ever seen service on those trains.
They're just plum tired. Out of curiosity, might the blades straighten out if you spun the fans slowly? Spinning slowly might not cool the blades as much as spinning them fast.
Not the cheep pressed fiber board that is used to make them. The humidity soaks into it and de-bonds the glue. Kind of like when you soak OSB plywood (Oriented Strand Board). It will never return to normal. I replaced all the blades on the porch fans at the Armadillo Ranch with solid plastic ones. And now back to trains. Hempstead, Texas last November.
That's what happens when you run your staging yard tracks too close to the furnace. A lot of us railfans sag as we get older and spend all that time out in the hot sun watching trains...
