Members:
Some years back I heard a story somewhere that a rail car that had been lost for about 30 years had resurfaced and when it was opened contained six Hudson automobiles of late 1940s vintage. Apparently the autos were shipped when new and were lost with the errant rail car; the story goes that the rail car was found in the 1970s. Any truth to this story?
Tony M.
My curiosity is really peaked on this one…hope somebody can tell the while tale.
About ten years ago, a guy told me that his brother worked for UP and that he had gotten a bonus for finding a shipment of 1950s autos that had been left in a tunnel somewhere. You never know whether to believe it or not!
As a general rule, DO NOT believe it. While storage cars full of old mail have been found, no such luck with automobiles. Railroads do not store cars in tunnels. That makes it really hard to get trains through.
Everyone knows you store PRR T1s in tunnels…
In the last 10 or so years there was a short article like that on the inside back cover of Trains mag. This story was of two Duesenbergs found in a box car at the end of a siding. Box car was put there to be repaired and paperwork lost. Doors had rusted shut. The guy who got the cars bought the box car at auction for scrap. Tires on the cars were flat from dry rot. When did the RR companies stop shipping cars in box cars?
Again, I repeat, DO NOT believe it. Therefore do not spread it unless you can prove it. So I challenge you to find the article and get back to us. I hear the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale to individuals and has been for decades. I can get you title is you send $5million US to my account in Belieze. There may be Dusenbergs stored in some unknown chambers down in the bridge piers.
Sheesh.
Well I don’t necessarily believe the story either. But then a friend of mine bought a 68 Shelby Mustang for $2000 7 years ago from an old lady. He saw it in a driveway 2 doors down from a garage sale. At the time it was not running but worth $10,000. Untouched now it would be worth about $50,000.
It was Packards, not Duesies.
Page 14-15, June 2001 TRAINS, in the column “Diverging Approach” by Ed Ellis, the article is entitled “Can you top this?”
He describes an experience where 2 friends of his were in Georgetown, Kentucky performing a detailed inspection of Southern railway train operations in their spare time in the 1960’s. The fellow across the street had 2 Packards. Turns out he was a scrap dealer, and bought an old Pennsy boxcar from a Cinncinnati area rip track. Paid $50 for the car, and when he opened it…Packard city.
Just another urban myth would be my guess. I’ll believe it when I see it.
This is the first step to getting to the bottom of it.
If it is an Urban Myth, we are on our way to busting it.
Trains Magazine is not the New York Post.
Maybe I’ll try the Packard Club of America. See what they have to say.
Thanks for the great debate on this.
TonyM.
Yes, the story is somewhat true. There was an article in Trains mag, but the cars were Packards, not Dusies. The man bought the car for scrap value. The cars were restored, one is now in the Packard museum, the other was retained by the man who bought the boxcar. Most urban myth has at least some basis in truth. R. Staller
…I’d say most of these type of stories are probably not valid…But out there in our massive size country and transportation system we’ll find some weird and strange stories…and some could have merit.
Edit: Wouldn’t that be exciting…Attending an auction selling a box car full of 30 plus years old Hudsons…! Wow. If the {questionable RR car}, was water tight, and still sealed…{locked}, and undisturbed, I wonder just what shape the autos would have been in…?
I am so glad Ed has stopped writing his column in Trains. “Legends” I feed him when we were young and waiting to roll one by kept poping up in print years later! That being said, I’m sure all are aware of the D&SL mallet in the bottom of Yankee Doodle Lake. 
We always used to hear a similar story about a car sitting around Proviso in the scrap line long enough. So hearing the story anywhere else, about different locations, etc., challenges the credibility of any of these tales. However, it would be hard to argue with a flesh-and-blood Packard on display somewhere, with its pedigree documented like that.
I did hear one story that I’d give some credence to. When the Grand Trunk carferry Milwaukee went down in 1929, some of the box cars on board were loaded with autos (Nash?). For all I know, they could still be down there–don’t know how extensively the wreck has been scavenged since it was found a few years back.
As for autos in box cars, the late 1950s is the latest one could reasonably expect to see them. The auto rack made a big debut (at least in its form on 85-foot-plus flat cars) in the early 1960s.
Basis in truth can be as simple as a case I was involved in when I was on the Police Department. We had a lot of older people who lived in mansions in the Central West End. One lady had called a tow company to get her husband’s car out of the garage as she was tired of looking at it.
This was about 1962, and the car was a 1935 Hudson coupe with 25 miles on the odometer. The truck driver called me and I verified that the lady wanted to get rid of it and would sign it over to his company. Her husband had taken sick and died shortly after buying the car. The lady never learned to drive, she took cabs everywhere.
All the metal was in good shape, the leather seats were like new, but of course all the hoses, tires and such were shot. I didn’t follow up, but the owner of the tow company said he planned on fixing it up and showing it. It may be in a museum somewhere now.
When I was stationed in Germany in 1982 at a base in Pirmasons. A german excavating company working on post un earthed a couple burried box cars that was burried during the war. One contained munitions and ordanance the other contained crates of BMW motor cycle parts. It would take two crates to assemble one bike. The dates on the paper work was 11-6-1941. There were several more cars that were totaly destroyed. There was lots of unexploded ordenance in the area and it tooks months to clean up. It was quite a find and there were loads of period uniforms,boots,blankets, and other military stuff that was found.
It apears that a sideing was next to the hillside was burried when there was some bombing going on and they never bothered to get the stuff out of the colapse. During the war the post was an air strip for the Luftwaffe. My shop was in a WW2 hangar.
You may not believe it but I do have some artifacts. I wish I had one of the bikes.
Pete
Actually the Brooklyn bridge is/was for sale for real. The city is/was tired of the maintenance and thus the expense of it. SO they offered it for sale. I do not recall if it was sold or not, seems there weren’t any/many takers who took it seriously, or who thought it would be a profitable venture.
I first heard this story in 1963. At that time it was Model-Ts that were found. It’s an urban legend.
Well, it would be hard to argue with a Flesh-and-blood Packard on display somewhere, with it’s pedigree documented like that, but that statement is just as undocumented, without even a city named, that the supposed Packard Museum is in.
The reason that I have a hard time believing any stories like these is that if you were the shipper, or the consignee to receive them, whether it was a half dozen Hudsons, a Duet of Duesies or a Pair of Packard’s, if the railroad told you they “LOST” your cars, I imagine that a fair majority of customers are going to be SCREAMING TO HIGH HEAVEN, until those cars are FOUND. If it was the Duesies, or the Packard’s and they had been restored before getting lost( the one story didn’t clarify whether the autos were restored before being lost or after being found) in that scenario, they would be very collectible cars, and the owner’s SCREAMING, would be even LOUDER, MORE INTENSE, and very likely could cause a sailor to BLUSH. I rather doubt in tha