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Chugging along - Father-son team restores antique rail car
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Friday, June 19, 2009 11:12 PM EDT
Argus-Press Photo by Anthony Cepak Grand Blanc Boy Scout Andrew Munerance, 15, stands inside the refurbished rail car he and his father Scott have been working on for about two years. Andrew is using the project to complete requirements to become an Eagle Scout.
OWOSSO - It may not be every person's dream to spend more than 2,000 hours rebuilding an old train car from scratch - but Andrew Munerance and his father Scott, the project has been a hard-fought dream.
The idea to fix up an old train car at the Steam Railroading Institute came when Scott, Grand Blanc Boy Scout leader, was helping Scouts obtain their railroading merit badges. As railroading enthusiasts, the two asked the SRI in October 2007 for possible jobs that Andrew, 15, could use for his Eagle Scout project.
SRI Director T.J. Gaffney directed the father and son team toward an old train car.
“The car is officially known as a bunk car,” Gaffney said, adding that he estimated the car's origin date as about 1915.
The bunk car was originally used to haul the chassis of Ford Model T's that would be transported and assembled at various plants around the country, Gaffney said. But when automobiles became bigger, the rail car was discontinued and converted into sleeping quarters for rail workers.
Scott Munerance said he and his son immediately knew the project would require a great deal of effort.
“We knew it was going to take more time than Andrew needed to complete his Eagle Scout. But we never anticipated that it would take 10 times the hours.,” he said. “We had ideas of taking the walls down and redoing the electrical work ... and the planning is one thing but the doing is a lot different.”
Andrew Munerance agreed.
“The car was pretty beat up,” he said. “The boards were so weak you could almost just punch through them.”
In late 2007, the two began deconstructing the car with the aid of other Grand Blanc boy scouts and SRI member and volunteer Bob Marsh.
“When I was a kid, the (railroad) yards here were my playground so I had no problem agreeing to help them out,” Marsh said. “I thought it was a pretty ambitious project, but they both wanted to do it. I know most dads would've said ‘Are you sure you want to tackle this? Let's find something else to do.'”
For nearly two months, the group worked on stripping the 90-year-old construction down to the shell.
“The demolition was enough for (Andrew's) Eagle Scout project,” Scott Munerance said. “But we couldn't leave this museum with an entire project like this. They had other projects, too.”
So the Munerances began spending every weekend for two years at the SRI rebuilding the rail car. The SRI provided an antique grant of $2,500 for the project. The Munerances even asked well-known retired Owosso industrialist and philanthropist George Hoddy for help.
“He was great and really behind us 100 percent,” Andrew Munerance said. “He really cares about the history and he wanted to help us out in anyway he could.”
Hoddy provided an additional $1,000 for the reconstruction.
When the project called for other skilled trades, the two began enlisting the help of several other volunteers, including an electrician and woodworking and window experts.
“They were all instrumental in this,” Scott Munerance said. “We know a lot about railroading but the stuff that I didn't know, they knew.”
Andrew Munerance said he is growing excited as each day passes and estimates the project is now about 95 percent complete.
“We'll have it ready for the Train Festival in July,” he said. “It's going to be really cool to show it off.”
Gaffney said when the car is complete it will serve as a display at the SRI.
“People are going to get a chance to see how the section crews had to live during World War I,” Gaffney said. “And it's all thanks to them.”
- Contact Nathan Bruttell at 725-5136 extension 231 or nbruttellarguspress@gmail.com. Post comments about this story online at www.argus-press.com.