Great Northern X-757 was originally St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba first-class vestibule coach number 26. It was outshopped by Barney & Smith on June 24, 1893, and received by the railroad five days later. The cost, including shipping, was $5,357.61.
StPM&M 26 was a fair representative of the state of the carbuilder's art in 1893. It's builder, Barney & Smith Car Company of Dayton, Ohio was a well-established, big-name builder. The two independent four-wheel trucks at each end were classic American practice, dating back to the 1830's. The clerestory roof was standard American design from the Civil War until the great depression. (The "clerestory" - the raised center section of the roof with opening windows - provided rudimentary air circulation and raised the light fixtures above the passenger's heads.) The wooden body is framed much like a through-truss bridge, with the main structural members being in the side walls below the windows. Truss rods and queen posts under the car stiffen the body, and allow shop forces to correct sag. It's length of sixty feet, vertical-grooved exterior sheething, and enclosed vestibules were modern developments of the day. The varnished oak interior, with brass hardware, rich wine-red or emerald-green upholstery, and fancy ceiling decoration followed contemporary styling tastes. There were no interior partitions. All the car's passengers shared a common space and equal seating arrangements - An American practice starkly constrasting with European norms. Lighting came from four oil ceiling lamps, heat from a closed-loop hot water system, (stoked by hand,) and there were separate restrooms for men and women. The wheels were of 42" diameter, on axles with 4 1/4" x 8" friction journal bearings. Air brakes were by the New York Air Brake Company. Total weight was 62,000 lbs.
In 1889, the StPM&M, owned by James J. Hill, was leased to a new company Hill had formed, the Great Northern Railway Company. Hill had a habit of creating new companies to build new railroad lines, then folding them into the parent company. By the turn of the century, the StPM&M was folded into the GN, and coach 26 was renumbered GN 145 on February 3rd, 1900.
Upon the creation of the "Oriental Limited" - the new top train to the Pacific Northwest, 145 was demoted, and became second-class coach 3225. A center partition was added, dividing the coach section in half. This probably happened circa 1905.
In 1914, the GN's Jackson Street Shops in St. Paul standardized the 3225's safety appliances to meet current Federal regulations. (This probably refers to hand brake, grab iron, and uncoupling lever placement, as set forth in what is today 49 CFR 231.12.) Work was recorded as done on April 24, 1914.
Electric lights were added in July 1926.
On August 30th, 1926 3225 was renumbered 568, and demoted to branch line use. (As new, modern equipment appeared, older equipment was usually bumped down a notch, with the oldest equipment being used by maintenance crews or scrapped.) The "Oriental Limited" had been upgraded to all-new steel cars in 1924, which may explain this demotion.
On April 26, 1930 number 568 was demoted again, becoming Drover's Coach X-757, the number it wears today. A "Drover's Coach" is for ranchers accompanying their cattle to market. Most of the coach seats were removed and replaced by bunks for sleeping. X-757 had four bunks on one side, starting from the women's (larger) restroom, and five bunks on the other. Eight coach seats remained at the far end for daytime use. If not done so already, the varnished oak interior was repainted at this time.
About this time (sources disagree on the exact date) a new steel center sill was applied by the Jackson Street Shops. An equipment diagram displayed in the car says it was applied in 1930 under AFE 40787. A letter, also displayed in the car, says it was applied on April 30th, 1932.
The new steel center sill was a kit marketed by Commonwealth. It consisted of two large end castings, which incorporated the center bearing and side bearings for one truck, the body bolster, the draft gear pocket, and the framing around the vestibule steps. Steel collision posts, on either side of the door from the vestibule into the car, anchored into the end castings. The two end castings were joined by I-beams (cut to length) which formed the center sill, and new queen posts and truss rods were applied. The carbody, stripped of everything below the floor, was then secured to the new frame. This converted the car to a steel frame with collision posts, which made it strong enough to be in a train with the heavy new all-steel cars, and prevented telescoping. In X-757's case, it added enough weight that the old 4 1/4" x 8" journals and 42" wheels were replaced by 5" x 9" journals with 36" wheels. (36" wheels being standard passenger car equipment for most of the 20th century.)
The Jackson Street Shops, where this work occured, were the GN's main passenger car shops on the east end of the system. MTM's Jackson Street Roundhouse is a surviving part of the complex, as are the 1870's-vintage stone buildings on the west side of the Jackson Street bridge. Another example of this same conversion technique is the Gopher, also in the MTM collection, which was converted by the Jackson Street Shops in 1926.
In 1961, X-757 was retired, and sat awaiting disposition (scrapping or burning) in Montana. Jack Hoover, a local railfan, purchased it from the GN in November of that year and moved it to his property. There is was well taken care of. It appears Jack removed the bunks and paint, and revarnished the interior woodwork. The exterior he covered with tin sheeting and roll-roofing to prevent water damage.
In 2001 Jack Hoover donated X-757 to MTM. It was trucked to St. Paul and unloaded at Shaw Lumber, which is on the same spur as the Jackson Street Roundhouse. (Construction prevented unloading at the roundhouse.) MTM sent both of it's GE 45-tonners to get it, one coupled to each end. In the photo above, one has pulled X-757 out of the lumber yard and is about to couple it on to the other. As an indication of its condition, after 40 years sitting idle the air brakes still functioned!