FYI For a week or two there has been a new passenger car parked toward the West side of the BNSF shop here in Topeka, just East of the BN baggage car that has been here for years. Today I found a street where you could get close enough to it that I could see identification. It is marked RPCX 3252 and also has B&O METCALF scrawled on it (the car is painted brown with the lettering in white and is in poor shape, many windows have plywood). RPCX is Railroad Passenger Cars Inc. And the B&O had a BE Observation, 5 Bedroom, Buffet, Lounge 23-seat car, named 7503 METCALF, it was originally C&O 2505 OHIO RIVER CLUB. And the number 3252 is the number it had under Amtrak. My records indicate is has had at least three private owners prior to RPCX. My guess is, it is here to be a parts donor for the BNSF business car fleet.
Rumor mill says BNSF has bought this car to replace an ailing BN car. I have a photo now but don't know how to post it.
You can e-mail it to me and I will help you out! If you have a RailImages account, post it to the site (or any other Internet site) and send me the URL (or "address") and I will show you how to post it! Harold
The Metcalf and Dana were equipped with diaphrams on the observation end and used mid-train on the Capitol Limited, which was split at Willard for operation of the Capitol to Chicago and the Ambassador to Detroit. The Metcalf and Dana became the observation cars on the Ambassador portion of the train. The companion cars in the series, Napanee and Wawasee were the observation cars on the Capitol and did not have diaphrams attached to the observation end, until the very end of their B&O careers. Following is an interior shot of the lounge end of these cars. [ April 25, 2005, 01:35 AM: Message edited by: mmi16 ]
