BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – It only recently reopened amid the pandemic, but it has been full speed ahead at the Historic RailPark & Train Museum on needed renovations to its historic railcars.

Director Jamie Johnson said eight train cars can be found at the RailPark housed at the L&N Depot, five of which are on the attraction’s railcar tours. Johnson said the park is working on a variety of projects involving the cars.

“Typically what our real priority is with the five cars that are on the tour is to do anything maintenance-wise to keep them in a good enough manner to bring people over them,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of little stuff.”

One of these smaller projects, Johnson said, was the recent repainting of the floors in the engine car. Other ongoing projects include restoring windows in the post office and presidential cars and repairing a roof leak in the dining car.

Johnson said another project is underway in the Towering Pines sleeper car.

Johnson said the project was broken into three phases, the first of which is to re-upholster seating in the third-class area.

“We had already started on this path to restore those seats, and it cost about $1,500 per seat to get those restored,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that there will be 12 seats restored during the first phase.

The museum has asked community members to sponsor the repairs with donations, Johnson said.

The second phase is reupholstering the second-class seating, where each seat will cost around $1,000 to repair. The final phase of the project, according to Johnson, is restoring the car’s flooring, which she said would cost around $3,500.

Johnson said the RailPark has received a $1,000 donation toward the third phase but still needs $2,500 to complete it. The RailPark is taking donations for this project via Donor View.

“When you start getting into the other cars, it’s just a whole other ballgame,” Johnson said, referring to the three cars not yet on the attractions tours.

Johnson said work is continuing on a World War II hospital car, including painting and putting in new windows and gaskets. While Johnson said there is no current plan for renovation of the inside of the hospital car, the RailPark has plans for additional exterior painting and striping. She said they expect to have a tentative plan for the interior by the end of 2020.

The World War II hospital car was built in 1945 by the American Car and Foundry Company of St. Charles, Missouri, and was one of 100 railcars used to bring injured soldiers home during the war.

“We’re working on these smaller projects to keep the cars in good condition so that we can continue to bring people into the cars,” Johnson said.