Located in: North Freedom, Wisconsin
The Pullman Company built this wooden car for the Wisconsin Fish Commission as “Badger #2” in September 1913, before a viable highway network afforded access to the many remote streams and lakes of Wisconsin. As its name implies, it was one of two such cars – the other has been lost.
It was designed with steel tanks clad in elegant wood cases to carry fish fingerlings to remote locations around the state to restock streams, rivers, and lakes. The car would be stopped on a bridge and the tanks emptied into the water below.
This unique rail car is in the collection of the Midcontinent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin. It is the only surviving car of its type. It was the very first car acquired by the new museum. Once the highway network was developed, the car was adapted to carry passengers and its tanks were removed. Even after acquisition in 1960, it continued in that role as part of the museum’s short rail excursion.
In 2005 it was decided to restore the car to its original purpose. The museum was awarded a $475,000 Capital Campaign Challenge Grant by the Jeffris Family Foundation and when that challenge was met, restoration work began to bring the car back to its as-built configuration, complete with fish storage tanks.
