Restoration of the McKeen Car #1 Cuyamaca

05/03/2016

With everything else I do, I don't feel the need to keep this page when we are publishing everything, including McKeen Car Cuyamaca posts on the McKeen Motor Car Company Historical Society. My recommendation is to like that page and to not expect much from this page anymore. Thank you. - Madison Kirkman

https://www.patreon.com/c/McKeenMotorCarCompanyHistoricalSociety
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/mckeencarcuyamaca
https://mckeencar.com/

05/01/2016

As many of you probably don't have a good understanding of the layout of the interior, the Cuyamaca had room for 76 passengers, 10 people on the rear bench seat, 3 people per regular bench, and 2 people on the smaller benches that had their back to a wall. Here is a drawing I made a while back on the dimensions of the car, these are not based on actual dimensions from the Cuyamaca, instead they are a combination of McKeen, SP, and UP drawings on the cars.

05/01/2016

Recently I visited the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum and was allowed to look through their archive of papers, photographs, and articles. In the process, I found a few new photos of the McKeen Car "Cuyamaca" I didn't have before. This photo shows men from the Merchants Association (possibly) riding from San Diego to El Cajon. This also shows the car in the original paint as well as gold striping.

Photo Courtesy of the Union Title Insurance and Trust Company, Eric Sanders Collection, Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum.

05/01/2016

Here is a similar car to the "Cuyamaca," The Los Angeles, San Diego Beach Railway Motor Car #2, with the small round window in the cab. This postcard is based off of a photograph, and is in front of the Hotel Cabrillo, now the west wing of the La Valencia. This car was likely scrapped in 1917 when the cars were retired.

03/12/2016

03/05/2016

It's finally happening, what we've all been waiting so long for. The McKeen Car "Cuyamaca" is about to hit the road, and travel back to it's home county of San Diego. The project that we have raised an amazing $14,000 for, is finally becoming a reality. Through the help of all of you, the last surviving lady of the the San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railway is finally going to start her restoration. This is only where this dream begins, we need your help to continue the project, through donations, of both tools, materials, and funds, and possibly through volunteering, we will bring this car back to her former glory. We will be posting many many photos here in the coming weeks of the Cuyamaca before and after her arrival to San Diego. Thanks to all of you out there, this is only the beginning.

11/12/2015

We would first like to thank all American Veterans who read this, and all American Veterans for that matter, who have protected this country from our enemies. As for the tie in to the McKeen Cars, few were still around by WWII, however there were a few on the U.P.R.R. that ran all the way up to 1955, and the Cuyamaca, which by WWII was de-motorized, and turned into a combine car used to haul troops in Alaska as part of the 714th Railway Battalion. It is believed this was the last mainline use for the car.

As for the project, we are almost about to move the car, and we have the trucking quote lined up. We would like thank Mr. Jong of Sad Diego for his very gracious donation of $2500. Because of the donation, we have now reached about $14,200 in donations. We have enough to take care of the move just barely, we are looking for more donations to help out, and if we have excess donations, they will be rolled over to use for the next part of the restoration, which includes paint examinations, and the pulling apart of the car.

Again, Thank you to everyone who has helped with this project, we would be nowhere without you all.

11/07/2015

Here is a great video produced by Ryan Blake, of SPFilms4449 on youtube. In a collaboration effort, we made this video to talk about the history of the McKeen Car "Cuyamaca," which talks about the entire history up to now. Now is our time to finish the history books, we are just weeks away from transporting the car and I will share photos of the car during transportation when possible. If you would like to donate, please visit www.GoFundMe.com/McKeenCarCuyamaca.

11/07/2015

Here is a rendering of what the Cuyamaca McKeen Car may look like when restored. We would also like to thank everyone for their donations, we have reached just over $14,000, thanks to a very gracious donation of $2500 from Mr. Jong, of San Diego. Please support our project by liking and sharing this post, and if you can, please donate to the fund at www.GoFundMe.com/McKeenCarCuyamaca.

Thank you - Madison Kirkman

11/07/2015

This is one of the most important posts I've ever written. The McKeen Car Cuyamaca project is almost on the move. (If you don't know what that is, click the link below to read up on what it is.) The M.M.C.C.H.S. Fund for this car is at about $11,250, which is amazing to myself as I never thought I'd be able to reach even that much in donations in the time we have. But the quote to move the car by truck, intact, is $13,805.45, now we need to move the car, possibly in the next two weeks, and we need your help. We need to raise another $3,000 through the support of you, and your friends on Facebook. If you can't contribute to the cause, at the least, please share this post with your friends asking to see if they an help. The more who see this the easier it will be to get the car down to start a restoration.
I would again like to thank everyone who has donated to the cause already, I would be nowhere without your help.

www.GoFundMe.com/McKeenCarCuyamaca

The McKeen Motor Car "Cuyamaca" #1 is one of three sole surviving McKeen Motor Cars in the world. It ran in San Diego on the San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railway, and is one of the only surviving pieces of equipment that exists from that railroad. This car is also the oldest vehicle in North A...

05/16/2015

We are very close to working out all the kinks in the plan to move the car down to San Diego. Our original plan was going to cost $23,000+, and that was all rail/barge to San Diego, crane and truck to Ramona. Our new plan is to rail/barge to Seattle, and truck to Ramona. We are still getting it lined up, but it's looking like it will cost about $14,000, a lot cheaper then the original plan, but we still need to raise more money. As we stand, we are at about $10,000, and we will need much more to take care of acquiring 501c3 status, buying a roof for the, and of course the major cost of restoration. Please share this post/page with your friends and encourage donations, we need as much help as we can get.

Below is a photoshopped image of the V&T #22 McKeen Car made to look like the Cuyamaca. We haven't done any paint samplings, but reports suggest this was the color scheme of the car.

Madison Kirkman has posted a new update!

11/24/2014

This video is about my project of the McKeen Car "Cuyamaca," restoration, and I am trying to bring this car back to San Diego and restore it back to factory, running condition. If you can, please share this video with your friends and encourage donations to this cause.

Support the preservation and restoration of the Cuyamaca McKeen Car here: http://www.gofundme.com/mckeencarcuyamaca