Lehigh and New England Railroad 10256 is a 50 ton composite gondola built in May of 1923 by the Magor Car Company.
Around 1958, LNE 10256 was rebuilt with side dump doors for distributing cinder ballast along the track and renumbered to #730.
Eventually LNE 730, along with three other similar cars, were acquired by the Wanamakers, Kempton, and Southern Railroad in Kempton, PA. Here the four gondolas were converted into open air passenger cars. In time, the WK&S ended up only using one of the cars, leaving #730 to the elements.
On November 2, 2013 WK&S 730 was purchased by the Allentown and Auburn Railroad and trucked from Kempton, PA to Kutztown, PA. In 2018 work began to restore the car to its appearance as LNE 10256, with plans to still use the car for passenger service. The side dump doors were removed, pieces of the frame replaced and repaired, and all the wood replaced. The car is painted, though only some of the lettering is done at this time.
LNE 10256 is mainly used as a back up open air car or for overflow capacity on our more popular trains. The car is equipped with picnic tables down the center of the car for seats, as well as a handrail around the top edge.
Fun Fact: LNE 10256 has been nicknamed by the A&A crew as the “Pennsylvania Dutch Vista View Open Top Dome Car V2.0”, after a nearly identical car that was used by a previous operator of the railroad.