I took time during the January thaw to visit and old friend northeast of Adamsville, Ohio. (See photo). Since 1942, OR&W Coach #9 has set along a ridge line in a farm field next to Adams Township Road #18, a dirt road to this day. 2003 marks the 120^th year of Coach #9’s existence – a birthday of sorts. All though now just a shell of its former self. It stands as a quiet testament to its rugged oak and steel origins. Built in 1883 by Jackson and Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware along with its companion Coach #10 for the Bellaire, Zanesville, and Cincinnati Railway (pre OR&W), it was a little over 35 feet long and 8 feet wide weighing in at 12 tons. 46 small passengers could ride two to a seat - paired with a narrow center aisle. Two coal stoves originally heated the car ends during the winter. After 1900, locomotive steam replaced the stoves. It served the railroad for 45 years surviving train wrecks along the way. With the demise of the western end of the OR&W in 1928, Coach #9 served as a bunk car for the scraping crew. The Lyons family of Adamsville bought the car less trucks and relocated the car from Chandlersville to Adamsville in 1929. From 1929 to 1942 it served the Lyons as a business workshop. A small church group bought it in 1942 and moved it to its present location. By the 1950’s the church group was gone and the coach was converted to a private residence. All traces of habitation were gone by the early 1970’s. Souvenir hunters, kids, and rail fans have slowly taken their toll over the intervening years removing parts and breaking all windows permitting nature to degrade the remaining shell. Now the center roof is gone, the floor has rotted away, and the sheathing is falling off exposing the inner structure.

This has provided one positive by exposing the inner structure – something very rare. It is very clear how the car was constructed and braced. The basic structure is a wood stud box. Both diagonal wood studs combined with steel rods positioned between the window frames brace and strengthen the box framing. The steel rods start at the outer sills, run vertically up, over, through the clerestory and down to the opposite side sill. Six in all. The shell has remained intact this long because of this bracing. I can still appreciate the small interior car volume and imagine still the many passengers squeezed into the small space rocking slowly as the coach moved through the landscape of Southeast Ohio. How many more years this relic of the OR&W will remain, however, is up mainly to mother nature now. I will continue my old friend visits as long as nature permits. Old friends can teach us a lot.

By the way, Ed Cass has many excellent photos and story background on Coach #9 in his book "Hidden Treasures – The Story of the Ohio River and Western Railway"). Recommended reading.

WRLogan