“Diplomat” Pullman Car headed to new home in Pennsylvania

For over 20 years the Pullman Railcar the Diplomat has been at the Parksley Railroad Museum.  However Tuesday, crews arrived to remove the rail car to a new home at the Colebrookdale Railroad in Boyerstown, Pennsylvania.

According to Railroad Museum’s Ellen Johnson, the Diplomat will be part of rail excursion trains.  Johnson said the Diplomat had been on loan to the Parksley Railroad Museum and was sold to the new owners.  The car will be moved to  Pennsylvania by truck and not by rail.  Apparently the wheel assembly is of the 1920s vintage and those are no longer allowed on Norfolk Western and CSX tracks because they tend to overheat, which could cause the tracks to be blocked. In the steam era, trains made frequent stops for water and lubrication.  Now trains travel often hundreds of miles without stopping for service.

Johnson said she believes the Diplomat was among cars that ferried government officials and participated in whistle stop political tours in the 1920s.

The company that is going to deliver the car to Boyerstown spent Tuesday loading it on flat bed trailers and planned to leave early this morning to head north.

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