07/08/2026
A tale of two waycars.
At least two Burlington waycars are known to be preserved in Minnesota. There were a few others, but their whereabouts have become unknown and are presumed scrapped or moved elsewhere out of state.
The oldest one in Minnesota is CB&Q 14534 at Gopher State Railway Museum in New Prague. It was built in December 1871 at Burlington’s Galesburg, IL shop as CB&Q 79. It fell in the NE-4 class of waycars, all 189 cars of this class being built as drover’s cars. Drover’s cars had coach seat and bunk accommodations for stockmen accompanying livestock being transported by rail. Federal law required livestock being transported by rail to be offloaded every 100 miles to get water and move around. The stockmen handled those chores. The drover’s car also had a conductor’s desk for the conductor to do his paperwork en route.
In 1904, CB&Q 79 was renumbered as CB&Q 14534 and later upgraded with a steel under frame. Like nearly all Burlington wood waycars, it has wood beam, passenger car style trucks. Burlington built their waycars to a standard plan of either 28’ long with three side windows or 30’ long with four side windows. After around 1904, CB&Q 14535 lost its drover’s accommodations and was configured as a standard waycar. CB&Q 14534 served a remarkable 105 years in service on the railroad, being retired in 1976 as Burlington Northern BN 11065.
Volunteers are working to restore CB&Q 14534 to operation on GSRM’s caboose train.
In St Paul, MN, at the Jackson Street Roundhouse of Minnesota Transportation Museum, you can ride a “newer” Burlington waycar every Saturday during museum hours.
Bright orange CB&Q 13500 is the first of 25 all steel bodied (except for the wood and canvas roof) members of the NE-10 class built between February and April of 1930 at Burlington’s Aurora, IL car shop. A close comparison between 14534 and 13500 shows both are built to the same standard plan except for a few small details. As built, the NE-10 class were painted mineral red just like the wood waycars, but between early 1954 and November 1954, some, including 13500 received an experimental bright orange color scheme. Many of the NE-10 class also received battery boxes under the floor and axle generators to charge the batteries. The batteries powered radioes and electric lighting, including electric markers. In the 1960s, many of the NE-10 cars were painted aluminum with a multi-color, red, white and black Burlington herald.
CB&Q 13500 was retired as BN 11445 in 1983 and used as a static display the former Burlington Northern Como Shop, now Bandana Square in St Paul, MN. In 2001, it was acquired by Minnesota Transportation Museum and restored to its 1954 bright orange paint scheme. Visitors can ride it Saturdays at Jackson Street Roundhouse on a short caboose hop trip through the industrial area near the roundhouse museum.
Don’t just take our word for it, visit GSRM and MTM and check them out yourself.
