Imagine it's May 1880 and you've just arrived at St Paul Union Depot. As you step off your train, you glance across the platform and see James J Hill and St Paul superintendent of the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, A.H. Moeller boarding a glossy new, maroon private car, its name "MANITOBA" painted in gold leaf on its side.
Car Manitoba was built by the Pullman company in May 1880 for the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway as a private office car assigned to the St Paul superintendent. For all practical purposes however, it was the private car of James J Hill who used it any time he traveled, especially while overseeing progress of StPM&M's transcontinental construction westward from Minneapolis.
It wasn't all work on car Manitoba. Hill's wife Mary also used the car frequently to travel back east to visit family in the eastern US and Canada. Hill and his associates also used the car for fishing and hunting trips to Canada and the western US.
Car Manitoba survived a rear end collision in February 1893, about 40 miles west of Spokane,WA. Around 130am, a following train rear ended car Manitoba's stationary train at a speed of approximately 25 mph. Car Manitoba telescoped about 18 feet over the locomotive of the train that hit it. No one was seriously injured, but one passenger, Oliver Dalrymple was pinned with a broken arm between debris and the locomotive.
In 1900, Great Northern Railway purchased a new private car numbered A-18 for use by James J Hill. In the early 1920s, GN applied a steel under frame (like we're currently reconstructing) to car Manitoba. By the mid-1930s, car Manitoba was retired and its body sold to Walter James of Nankin restaurant fame who moved it to his farm in Howard Lake, MN.
GSRM acquired car Manitoba's body in 1998 and moved it to New Prague, MN. In 2025, volunteers have begun working to reconstruct a steel frame to place under car Manitoba. When the body is transferred to its new frame, it will be the first time car Manitoba has been on the rails in almost 90 years.
If you'd like to donate to car Manitoba's restoration, click the "Donate Now" button below which will take you to our secure Square site to make a donation.
Thank you!
