It is amazing what is and what is no more. One of the biggest jobs on #102 is going to be restoring the seats. It is amazing that I get to even say that. There are few cars of this vintage that have any part of the original seats left, let alone most all of them. Granted most all need serious help, most of the outside arms are rotted from when the windows were taken out and most of the inside arms are broken around the fastenings. The bases are cast iron and in good shape, amazing, however the footrest castings tucked in under the seats are mostly gone, probably the most protected area inside the car, go figure.
The original work card on #102 had the seats covered with old gold plush After pulling away two layers of heavy Naugahyde we found old gold plush, amazing! So it turns out that plush (wool mohair blend woven on a heavy cotton wool backing) was so ubiquitous to train upholstery it was called seating. I started looking for replacement fabric, plush is not a easy thing to find and true plush with mohair, as far as I can tell, is no longer made in United States, amazing. We lead the industrial revolution, with Wilmington Delaware being one of the largest car manufacturing cities in the world for the world. Now, you have to look hard to find any evidence of the Jackson & Sharp yard, even when you know what your looking for. Not to mention the loss of all the supporting industries. The following is an add in the first Jackson& Sharp catalog published in 1893. All gone, amazing.
However using the internet and empowered with the idea of doing the car right I found two companies still selling plush in the United States. One company in Belgium one in the Netherlands. Now check this out, one of the companies does small run custom colors in plush and provides free samples. Either this is a case of old world craftsmanship or computer driven technology that no one understands. But I'm not going to argue with the results. The sample is on the left, the original 121 year old seat is on the right. Amazing!
Amazing is right! I am ready for a new post though. Any leads on the Miller hardware? I think the "C" and the "F" on the seat ends are for the train line that the car for. " Canada" and, I don't know, "Freezing"?
ReplyDeleteLooks great. Good luck.