WABASH #1238

Builder: American Car & Foundry
Built: 1927
Type: Coach
Status: Restoration

Wabash No. 1238 is a typical 1920s coach car designed for use on the Wabash Railroad’s various passenger trains. It is one of several Wabash passenger cars that the Monticello Railway Museum is fortunate enough to have in our collection. It is quite likely that No. 1238 regularly operated through Monticello on Wabash trains from the time it was built into the early 1960s.

In 1964, the Wabash was absorbed by the Norfolk & Western (N&W) Railway. The N&W renumbered the 1238 to No. 1807, and soon after placed the car into Chicago-area commuter train service between Chicago’s Dearborn Station and suburban Orland Park, Illinois. The car was retired on May 14, 1970, and subsequently sold to the Sol-Tick & Company scrapyard in Decatur, Illinois, along with many other similar former Wabash coaches. Of the dozens of these cars that were sent to the scrapyard, only a handful escaped the cutting torch, including No. 1807, which was acquired from Sol-Tick by the Monticello Railway Museum in the 1980s.

For many years, No. 1807 was stored outdoors in the museum’s Camp Creek Yard, but was recently moved into our shop facility to be fully restored to operating condition for use on our excursion trains. When complete, it will once again appear as Wabash #1238, and look just as good as it did when it rolled out of the American Car & Foundry factory in St. Charles, Missouri, nearly 100 years ago.