QR-Boxcar 706 to Restrooms

Boxcar to Restrooms

Pacific Coast Railway
Boxcar #706

OVERVIEW
The Southern Pacific Freighthouse (built in 1894) originally had one restroom back in the day which eventually grew to two restrooms. The original renovation and building plans for the museum included two restroom similar to how it had been configured in later years. But delays in the Freighthouse restoration resulted in the museum needing to upgrade the plans to meet new plumbing standards and have six restrooms. So creative minds solved this problem by converting an old Pacific Coast Railway boxcar into four restrooms. We restored the exterior of PCRy #706 to retain its historic look and feel and then modified the interior to create the needed facilities with modern plumbing fixtures and finishes. This boxcar now serves as an exterior exhibit while providing the needed restrooms without significantly changing the feel of the interior Freighthouse space.

RESTORATION
This 30-Foot boxcar is one of a group of 10 boxcars built circa 1906-1912 by Pacific Car and Foundry in Seattle, Washington. The boxcars were numbered 700-718 (even numbers).

This car is one of four surviving boxcars of this group. The railway trucks are from PCRy boxcar 1516, which had rested for many years on the grounds of the Dalidet Adobe in San Luis Obispo. It underwent initial restoration (structural and exterior) in the museum’s Emily Street Yard and then was moved to its current location on the west side of the Freighthouse on March 21, 2013. Once in this location, interior work began on installation of the restrooms and exterior work continued with painting and detailing. The restoration and restrooms were completed and approved by the City in time for our grand opening in October 2013.

HISTORY
In the late 1980’s, the City of Santa Barbara placed a Westside Lumber Company narrow (3-foot) gauge log car, carrying a large log, on Stearn’s Wharf. The car was placed there to commemorate the lumber trade that had taken place on the wharf in the 1800’s. Through the years, heavy salt spray from the ocean severely rusted the car parts and termites reduced the large wooden side sills and cross members to hollow beams. In the early 2000’s, the City of Santa Barbara had to move the log car to make way for renovations to the Ty Warner Sea Center aquatic museum on the wharf. Due to the deteriorated condition of the car, the city decided not to restore it or return it to the wharf. The car was then acquired by SLORRM and on December 22, 2005, PCRy boxcar #706 was placed on the trucks from Stearn’s Wharf at the Pacific Coast Home and Garden Center at 2034 Santa Barbara Avenue (just adjacent to the museum’s current Emily Street Yard) where it was on display until the museum began it’s restoration.