Beech Grove observation car office

I wondered if this was still there? Trains ran a picture of it in the late 1960's in one of their 'Would you believe it?' columns. It was the observation ends from two retired streamlined passenger cars welded together, on top of a raised platform. It was for the bridges and buildings department at the time, during the waning days of the NYC.

yes but not same car your thinking of, but name is Beech Grove like the shop.
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The observation car Dutch cites is indeed still rolling around. It's used with a few other cars including a 10-6 sleeper from Budd and a Viewliner prototype converted to a theater car. They are for company service, I.E. The brass traveling around on the trains. This is done when they are looking for a new route, showing politicians how the system works (I.E. Seeking funding or favor), working things out with host freight railroads, or just getting a feel for how things are operating these days. All of the above are very useful in managing a railroad.

Volks, I think Mr. Ames has something else in mind, as I recall the same TRAINS photo he is addressing.

This is a structure that was built from the ends of two round end Obs and mounted atop a high platform. This well predates anything regarding Amtrak.

I'm sure the "PV" community considers such a travesty; but at "the end", all Central (be it NY or Penn) had in mind was "out".

Sorry about the mispelling, didn't catch my mistake even though I know the name. Here's a picture of what I'm asking about from the August 1966 issue.

Leo_Ames wrote:Sorry about the mispelling, didn't catch my mistake even though I know the name. Here's a picture of what I'm asking about from the August 1966 issue.

According to Dave Randall's excellent "Streamliner Cars, Volume 1, Pullman Standard", the tower at Beech Grove was made from the obs end of the NYC 1938-built sleeper lounge observation cars Bedloes Island and Pelee Island.

Gone when they built the new office up front 15 to 20 years ago.

NYC welded together two office car butts to make that, the lattice frame is a standard type used on Big four interlocking tower.

It did last well into the Amtrak era, hell someone even painted the obs car butts in full on phase2 paint.

Admin notes...

Did a little pruning...

Moved this to the NYC Forum, with a shadow topic in Amtrak.

NYC is not the only one to do something like that. Genesee and Wyoming RR put a whole obs car (don't know the ancestry) up on blocks at Retsof NY years ago for office space. It was informally known as "The Twinkie".

Looking at Google Maps, something appears to be there. Sadly, the googlemobile didn't get to anyplace where it was an easy look to see what the car is...

Anyone have the approx coordinates of where the double obs "office" might have sat?