The Allegheny Valley Business Car "Kimberly"

A brief history in photos and prose
Business car Kimberly on an AV inspection train in this undated photo

It was the panic year of 1893. The Allegheny Valley's fortunes were once again at a critical low ebb. Business was down. The cash reserves were almost exhausted. Credit was impossible to obtain. Plans to standard gauge were abandoned, and it was nearly certain that the line would soon follow other larger railroads into into receivership. Salvation only came through the timely appearance of an unlooked for investor with ready cash. William Otto wasn't a large man, but he had style, a quick wit, and best of all (for the railroad) cash money to invest. If pressed he would say his money had come from Colorado silver. And indeed it had, but not directly. - Billy Otto had a love for the cards, and was considered pretty good with them. The Directors of the AV, were not willing to spurn dame fortune either. The board took his money, and in turn made him a voting director.

A few years later Mr Wm Otto esq., by now a respected member of the community with a fine house, a lovely wife - a fiery beauty with a bit of a black Irish temper  - and two sturdy children, went on a trip to New York to see about a business proposition. At least as far as anyone knew. His business was actually a high stakes poker game at an exclusive hunting retreat in the Catskills.

Well, his luck started out bad - then it got worse. Staggering amounts of cash left his pockets as hand after hand turned sour. Late that Saturday night, a haggard and drawn looking Billy Otto drew a pair of twos, and..... trash. But he suddenly straightened his shoulders, a ghost of a smile crossed his lips, and he placed one last bet. $40 in gold, his house, his AV stock, and his grandfather's watch. Table stakes, all or nothing. It was the bluff of a lifetime. Somehow it worked. With that one bit of desperate bravado he got his fortune back, plus a bit, and a twenty year old narrow gauge rail car from a gent who had thought him a sucker. Had he been purposely building to this all along? History does not say.

About a month later, the rail car was delivered to the interchange yard to be unloaded from the standard gauge, As a director, Mr. Wm Otto offered to sell it to the Allegheny Valley for use as a business car for the sum of $1 - on the condition that he was allowed to retain use of it whenever he felt the need. The other directors, while puzzled by the stipulation, agreed. The railroad now had itself a business car. The car was occasionally used to impress potential customers, curry favor with potential investors, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that, about twice a year, it also became the site of another legendary card game.

It was also to be William Otto's refuge on many occassions. Whenever his wife's tongue would start to get the better of him, rather than fight, he would quietly take up his hat and a book, whistle for his faithful scotty Samantha, and go down to the rail yard. Whenever it was once again safe for him to return home, one of the boys would come to fetch him  One time, upon making up after a 3 day sojourn, he had the car named 'Kimberly', in his wife's honor for being, so he said,  "the greatest fortune in his life."   Such is love, and we'll leave the story at that.

But time marches onward. The years came and went. What was once grand becomes quaint, then obsolete, then passes into history.  The automobile replaced the train as the popular form of transportation. By 1940, where once 3 or 4 passenger trains and an express per day ran nearly full in each direction, now a single combine tacked to the end of the local was usually all but empty. If not for the agreement with Mr Otto, now a frail man in his 80's, the business car would have certainly met the same fate as the line's other passenger equipment. -- Three coaches were stripped of their appliances and set out on an unused siding near East Sandy, to be leased as hunting camps - The rest were simply rolled off the rails into a ditch and burned.

Last regularly scheduled passenger train Nov 1, 1939

In the early fall of 1951 steel demands for wartime production meant coal revenues were once again on a periodic upswing, even with the threat of a steelworkers strike looming. It was decided by the board of directors to run a 'Customer Appreciation Special' train to celebrate the line's Centennial the following April. The old private car was pulled off the siding behind the shop where she had sat for some seven years since Wm Otto's death and hastily refurbished. 2-6-0 #12 was the engine being shopped at the time, so she was chosen to be dressed up to pull the special. But it was not to be. As 1952 dawned the labor situation at the steel mills was, if anything, even more unstable. On April 4, President Truman tried to illegally nationalize the steel mills to head off a strike, so the date of the special was pushed back until August.  On June 2, the steelworkers went on strike..... Though US Steel settled with the union on  June 27, others did not. By the time the strike officially ended on the evening of July 24, nobody was in the mood to celebrate much of anything.

Advertising photo for the ill fated 1952 Centennial Special

It would not be until the beginning of tourist service in 1958 that the car would again see the light of day. Since there were no passenger coaches left - those at East Sandy were simply too far gone  to be roadworthy -  the shop crew built 4 all new 'old time' coaches and a combine from 500 series steel flats using the old business car as their model.
New shopbuilt 20 series coaches and visiting restored #6 in June of 1960

About the model:
I had a Kalamazoo observation car here. I was having trouble deciding what to do with it. I found some nice pics online of a private car, which was to be the inspiration for the build.



The interior is panelled in bamboo and  furnished


It is not quite finished, as I still need to do the interior lighting


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