A historic train along the Kokosing Gap Trail grew longer last week, as several area businesses donated their services to add an 80-year-old freight car to the steam locomotive and caboose on display in Gambier.

The flat car—originally built in 1922 for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, commonly known as the Nickel Plate Road—was added to the train display last Thursday in order to increase the display’s historical value, said Jamie Samuell, a Gambier resident who organized the flat-car project.

“I felt we needed to add more to the [train display],� he said. “I really want to bring this history to the people of Knox County.�

While Samuell is yet unsure of this specific car’s history, he said it was originally built in 1922 by the Illinois Car Company for the Nickel Plate Road, which ran through northern Ohio. According to a database maintained by the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, these cars were originally double-deck stock cars, designed to carry livestock such as cattle. In 1939, according to the database, the cars were rebuilt as flat cars, designed to carry large loads on their flatbed surface.

Samuell said the process of refurbishing the car is under way, and he intends to restore the car to its original appearance within weeks. Eventually, he said, he hopes to place a load from the 1940s atop the flat car.

“I’m looking to add historical freight to the top of it,� he said, “maybe historical tractors. We’ve been approached [by some wanting] a Sherman tank [on the car].� Other options for loads include 1940s-era Jeeps or other vehicles, he said.

According to Samuell, the addition of the flat car came with little cost to the Kokosing Gap Trail largely due to the donations of several area businesses.

“It’s been very much a community-oriented effort,� he said. “I’m really thankful to the community for all its help with this project.�

Samuell said he had been seeking a freight car for the Gambier display when, last month, a friend working for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad told him about a flat car in a Canton, Ohio, scrap yard. After the scrapping company offered to sell the car at a reduced price, he said, the C.L. Richert Trucking Co. in Mount Vernon volunteered to transport the car from Canton, located near Cleveland, to Gambier.

Meanwhile, said Samuell, Small’s Sand and Gravel Company of Gambier increased the ballast upon which the display railroad sits. Samuell, Kenyon alumnus Drew Kalnow ’03, College Township Trustee Barry Bowden and Phil Samuell, Kokosing Gap Trail coordinator and Jamie Samuell’s father, laid the rail for the additional track. Blubaugh Body and Frame of Mount Vernon then used the largest wrecker in Knox County to move the locomotive to make room for the car, which was sandblasted and repainted early this week.

Samuell said that the flat car would be the only addition to the train in the near future, though he would like to see more cars added at a later point.

“Really, I’d like to add more cars,� he said. “What’s difficult is getting more donations [for such a project]. Right now, I have no plans [for future additions].�