A recently remodeled vintage train car offers passengers a scenic view of rolling farmland and old architecture in Hillsdale and Branch counties.
Last weekend, locals could hear Norfolk and Western Business Car 300’s welcoming whistle as it made its maiden voyage from Coldwater to Hillsdale and back. Bryan Lalevee, founder of Norfolk and Western Business Car 300 Preservation Society, said he hopes local families and railfans will enjoy weekend excursions on the renovated train, especially during the summer months.
“When I was a kid, my dad would take us down to the train tracks. I was 12 years old when I drove my first locomotive, or as we called it, ‘ran’ a locomotive,” Lalevee said. “It wasn’t until 2007 that I became an official locomotive engineer, but I was always the kid looking up at the locomotive engineer. Well, now I’m the engineer looking down at the kids and I’ve kind of come full circle.”
The train rides are expected to last three hours total, and will include full-service dining and period-appropriate decorative elements. Rail travel used to be a major part of Hillsdale County’s economy, and the preservation society seeks to bring this element back.
“It’s pretty hard to imagine, in our hectic, multitasking lives, that the railroad once represented the ultimate in speed and convenience,” said JoAnne Miller, board member of the Hillsdale County Historical Society. “We exist in large part because in 1843 a fateful choice of routes surveyed by Henry Waldron brought the railroad our way.”
In the 1800s, trains like Norfolk and Western Business Car 300 offered luxury travel for wealthy passengers during overnight trips.
“This particular car would see maybe the president of the railroad; it has bedrooms and a kitchenette. So it’s a sleeper-business car,” said Travis Bloom, the vice president of Little River Railroad and chief mechanical officer for Indiana Northeastern Railroad.
Lalevee started the renovation after the preservation society used crowdfunding to promote the project.
“Since we accepted the donation of the car on Oct. 8, 2020, from all funding sources, which includes donations and my own personal donation to the organization plus a matching gift from Norfolk Southern, we’ve raised just under $41,000. Facebook has been our platform for marketing and it has been phenomenal,” Lalevee said. “What we’ve done with the fundraising is we’ve kept the dollar amounts that we’ve asked for very small and light. For example, when we went to raise funds for the window shades, we broke it down to each individual shade.”
Alongside bountiful donations, numerous volunteers have also assisted with the project.
“Our team of volunteers– which goes from other railroad employees, to retired employees, to HVAC technicians– just the right people came about at the right time,” Lalevee said. “The age span is from 19 years old all the way to early 60s. It seemed like the right people showed up at the right time.”
Bloom will be running the engine for future excursions. Little River Railroad is, according to their website, a “not-for-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and operation of historic railroad equipment,” while Indiana Northeastern Railroad owns and maintains the tracks running across Hillsdale and Branch counties. With these combined experiences, Bloom will be running the engine on the starting excursions.
“The Indiana Northeastern Railroad Company is the freight operator of the line, so they’re the owners of the line. Little River Railroad and the NW300 groups are working together to do the trip itself,” Bloom said. “My work with the Little River Railroad has been for most of my life, it got me started and then I happened to stumble upon my career with Indiana Northeastern Railroad shortly after college, and I’ve been with them for 16 years now. So it just kind of happened.”
Before its renovation, the car was sitting in a private owner’s barn outside of Philadelphia since the 1990s, and was completely stripped of all furnishings due to mold and general deterioration, according to Lalevee.
“The carpet was destroyed and paint was peeling off the walls,” Lalevee said. “Mechanically, the car was inoperable. The car has an onboard generator, air conditioning system, and heating system and none of it worked.”
Locals can enjoy an exclusive experience on the renovated train car.
Lalevee said he is hoping to have multiple trips this summer, running until October. Students, if interested, can expect to ride the rails this upcoming fall semester.
“Train travel in its heyday 70 years ago was a very luxurious thing,” Lalevee said. “Being able to ride 300 will give people the opportunity to ride in that first class luxury from years gone by, something you cannot do today on Amtrak. That’s what we are aiming to do, is to make it an experience that they will not forget.”