This week, Leonard Cash shared the history of ‘chapel cars,’ and the tie to the Newcastle area of one car in particular.
Unknown to many, chapel cars are railroad cars outfitted as chapels that once traveled around North America, and Cash’s research explains that chapel cars were a transient and inexpensive way to bring Christ to the new and growing towns out west. In the late 1890’s the cars only cost two or three thousand dollars.
Some areas experienced high rates of boom and bust with the mining industry, and when that happened the chapel cars would simply move in or move along. The creation of chapel cars is attributed to an Episcopalian leader by the name of Bishop William Walker of North Dakota.