Spring Cleaning in Rusk

Interested in a Cincinnati & Lake Erie freight motor? Have we got a deal for you!The Texas State Railroad in Rusk, Texas, is apparently doing a property cleanup, and one of the pieces of equipment included on page 5 of their disposition list is the car body shown above (2019 photo by Mitch Goldman from here), Cincinnati & Lake Erie 646. Car 646 has led a tough life: built by Cincinnati in 1930 as part of the 635-649 series of modern freight motors, it was one of seven sold to American Aggregates for conversion into a diesel locomotive. This one was modified less than some - it was shortened neither in height nor length, as some of the AmAg conversions were - but it did lose its original roof profile at either end and received a number of other changes. Anyway, at some point - I think in the late 1970s, but I'm not sure - it was acquired by the Indiana Railway Museum in French Lick. They sold it in 1999 to the group restoring Northern Texas Traction 25 in Fort Worth, which salvaged the…