The years haven't been kind to Buffalo & Susquehanna combine car No. 35.

The once-rich red paint is wrinkled and peeled. The arched windows are dark, and many lack glass.

Inside, there are tattered seats with horsehair stuffing poking through holes in the cotton duck and leather covers.

Canvas ceilings, once painted a rich green and stretched over arched wood laminates, are sagging and torn, although age hasn't erased the hand-painted scrollwork that adorned them.

"She's got a few wrinkles and sags," Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania director Charles Fox said Thursday.

"But I like things with a few scratches and dents. That's its life. That's evidence of its use."

It's a wonder it's survived at all.

"It's an archeological site on wheels," senior curator Brad Smith said.

Built in 1906 by Barney & Smith Co. of Dayton, Ohio, the wooden, 82-foot-long three-compartment car may be the last of its kind.

A tasteful, well-appointed lounge car, No. 35 was later furnished with its own smoking and baggage sections. The combine carried passengers for 43 years before it was put to work transporting workers and hauling equipment.

It ended up in storage for a few decades in Gettysburg. When it was acquired by the Strasburg museum in 1997, it was sealed in plywood and left untouched for another 13 years.

Now, B&S No. 35 is once again seeing the light of day. Not for long, though — this rare specimen is scheduled to be resealed next week in a state-of-the-art cocoon that will preserve it for another 20 or 30 years.

"It's a matter of prioritizing," Fox said.

There is more than a century's worth of labor already backed up in the yard — and that's assuming no additional acquisitions, he said.

"Our job is to ensure we can pass this on to our successors, and maybe their successors. Then, when the resources are available, it will be restored."

"As long as it's not deteriorating, we're happy," Smith said. "It's being preserved for future generations."

The new cocoon, according to restoration curator Al Martin, will have doors to allow easy access and study in the future. There will be metal siding and a rubber roof to provide additional protection, as well as solar-powered fans to keep it ventilated, preventing heat build up and mold.

"The restoration of this car will not be difficult. It will be expensive, but not impossible," he said. "This is the kind of project I really enjoy. I'm a wood-car fanatic."

The B&S line, Smith said, connected logging communities in northern Pennsylvania with Buffalo, N.Y. At the time, he said, the line had only 16 passenger cars in its fleet.

"This was a tiny railroad serving small communities," he said.

B&S was acquired by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1932. B&O's plans for a Pittsburgh-to-Manhattan line never materialized, however, and passenger service was discontinued in 1949.

Smith said most of the wooden cars that survived as work cars were stripped of their furnishings.

"The fact that they left this stuff behind is pretty remarkable," he said. "At the time, there was no interest in preserving these old cars."

Recently, Smith said, a restoration team working on a similar car in Kentucky visited Strasburg to see No. 35. "They just couldn't find the details on their car. They were ecstatic when they saw ours."

"It's a really unique study piece," Martin added. "There are so many little details here you just don't find anymore. And there is at least one of every detail that you would need to fully restore it."

For instance, he said, a few small pieces of the original stained glass accents have survived — enough to replicate to exacting standards. And, although the interior woodwork is faded with age, hints of the original red-tinted varnish remain.

The car has seating for 52 people, Martin said, with tiny restrooms at either end and a small food-service room. The smoking lounge in the middle holds up to 16 people.

Restoration will take two to three years, he said.

Restoration technician Shawn O'Brassill, for one, can't wait to get his hands on it.

"It will be a beautiful car when it's restored," he said. "Just stunning."

The museum's next restoration project is the Pennsylvania Railroad's famed Lindbergh Engine — also the last of its kind.

The museum offers tours of its restoration shop for an additional fee.

tknapp@lnpnews.com