Community

Historic Rail Car Reunited With Dillard Depot After 16-Year Restoration

After 16 years of restoration, an 1883 rail car that once stopped at the Dillard Depot is open to visitors at the Douglas County Museum. The car now sits beside the restored depot it served more than a century ago.

ROSEBURG, Ore. - Visitors to the Douglas County Museum can now step inside a rail car that once stopped at the Dillard Depot. The restored 1883 Oregon & California Railroad car was unveiled Saturday, Sept. 26, beside the depot it served more than a century ago.

The Roseburg Receiver and The Roseburg Plug visited the Douglas County Museum as a restored 1883 rail car was unveiled beside the Dillard Depot it once served.

The Roseburg Receiver and The Roseburg Plug attended the ribbon-cutting and toured the car as it opened to the public. Standing beside the Dillard Depot, the finished exhibit shows visitors how the two pieces of local railroad history fit together.

A historic photograph displayed at the Douglas County Museum shows a steam locomotive pulling a rail car beside a depot, offering a glimpse of what rail travel looked like when the restored 1883 car served Douglas County.

The car carried passengers on the route between San Francisco and Portland, with service through Douglas County. For people whose families have lived here for generations, there is a striking possibility: a relative may have sat in this very car while traveling through Dillard.

Restoring it took 16 years, according to people who worked on the project. Dave Van Slyke, one of the restoration leaders, spoke with The Roseburg Receiver at Saturday’s unveiling. The work also involved Dale Greenley, James Aune, Gary Peske, other volunteers, local businesses, donors, and the Douglas County Museum Foundation. The project represented an investment of approximately $100,000.

The rail car’s uses changed over time. It was converted in 1914 to carry both passengers and mail. After that service ended in 1925, it continued to serve railroad crews as a maintenance car. The car later spent decades in Glendale before it was donated to the museum and moved to the grounds in 2013.

Inside the restored 1883 rail car, the seats are spaced farther apart than they were during its years of service. A seat once stood at every window, and marks on the walls still show where those seats were mounted.

The Dillard Depot has its own long journey. Built in the late 19th century, it was donated to the museum by Roseburg Forest Products in the 1980s and restored. Now, with the rail car beside it, visitors can see both together again and walk through a part of Douglas County history.