Last month, the Museums at Union Station announced that an open-air Salt Lake, Garfield and Western Railway passenger car is set to be refurbished and put on display at Ogden Union Station.

“This was an open air passenger car that was built in 1922 and it helped move guests back and forth to the Saltair Palace out on the Salt Lake, so this is a really, really cool car,” Museums at Union Station Administrator Hope Eggett told the Standard-Examiner. “We were recently awarded two major grants to get this restored and back into a beautiful state — awarded by the Save America’s Treasures Grant Program and the Ludwick Family Foundation.”

She said that the car served a couple of important roles in the region in the middle of the last century.

“The car was built originally in 1922 by Salt Lake, Garfield and Western, and it was used throughout the golden age of the Saltair in the 1920s, and then in the 30s and 40s,” she said. “During the 40s, it was actually used to support the war effort at Hill Air Force Base (then known as Hill Field). It transported workers onto the base, actually. … And then it was in active use at Saltair until the attraction closed in 1958.”

Photo supplied, Museums at Union Station

Eggett said the car was eventually transferred to the Promontory Chapter of the NRHS (National Railway Historical Society) who, in turn, donated it to the Museums at Union Station, though she was unsure of exactly when this transfer occurred.

She said, in total, $200,000 has been donated toward the car’s restoration.

“There are actually a number of things that are going to be done on it,” she said. “Physically, it looks like it’s in pretty rough shape, but actually, it’s not as bad when we get into it. We worked with some expert rail consultants to help develop the scope of work for the grant proposal, and that includes replacing the wood elements that are rotted out, replicating the 20 reversible wooden benches that are inside, replacing the floors, replicating the three-step running boards — that’s one of the features that makes this car unique, is those three-step running boards to help people load on and off quickly — and then patching and stabilizing the roof and metal elements as well. And then, of course, painting it back into its historically-appropriate scheme, which would have been an orange and white color scheme.”

Eggett said they are looking to get the renovation underway as soon as possible.

“We’ll be putting out RFP very shortly, and then we would expect the work to be done and the car to be back on our campus within about two years,” she said.

She said that restoration work will be done offsite in the same manner that the merci Car was recently restored. The car will be displayed at the Spencer S. and Hope F. Eccles Rail Center upon completion.

“This will give people the chance to be able to interact with this directly for the first time in its collections history,” she said.

Eggett said not only is the car unique, it’s also a bit of a rarity.

“There were 13 of these originally built,” she said. “Only three of them are surviving right now, and none of them are in display condition. We at the Union Station own two of them, an out-of-state railroad museum owns the third, but none of these are in display condition. I feel like a lot of people in recent generations have not gotten a chance to see these cars in all of their glory, and that’s really exciting that we’re going to be able to have such a unique piece on display again.”

She said there aren’t immediate plans to restore the second Salt Lake, Garfield and Western Railway passenger car in the museum’s collection, but she did say that restoring the first gives the museum additional momentum for future equipment restoration projects.