The McKeever is a railroad sleeper car built by the Pullman Company in 1924. During the day, while its passengers were at breakfast, its upper berths were closed and its lower berths were "converted" to day time use with a table between facing seats. The change back to night time use was performed while its passengers were at dinner. The car had its own dedicated staff. The McKeever's porters were known for their politeness and courtesy. Many passengers planned their trips from San Antonio to New York and back, a journey which took several days, to coincide with when the McKeever was making the run. It was like staying at their favorite hotel. They knew the staff and the staff knew them. Pullman cars such as the McKeever provided through service on even the longest journeys. The car would be switched from one railroad to another for different sections of the trip but the staff stayed with their assigned car.

The McKeever is a 12 Section / 1 Drawing Room Sleeping car. It entered service with the Pullman Company on June 26, 1924. It is one of 63 such cars built between June and August of that year. It was rebuilt in 1935 when air conditioning was added. Until 1948 it operated mainly on the New York Central and the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad. Some museum visitors have told us about trips on the McKeever between San Antonio and Grand Central Station, New York. After 1948, the car was operated solely by the MKT RR until 1965 when the KATY ceased passenger service.

All Pullman cars, until 1948, were owned by the Pullman company itself. They were leased to operating railroads and serviced and staffed by the Pullman Company. The Pullman Company "monopoly" was broken up in 1948 and its cars were spread out among all the different railroads individually. The McKeever was allocated to the MKT. Its records show the McKeever as one of the nine Pullmans it owned in 1954. The others were the Kimbell, the McCaysville, the Lake Jessie, the McCumber, the McLeod, the McCallsburg, the McInnes and the Sunnyside. The McKeever is 82 feet, 11 inches long externally, with an interior passenger area 73 feet, 10 inches long. It hold 55 passengers and has both a men's and women's toilet area, one at each end of the car, for the sake of propriety, no doubt. The men's area is larger, and is also designated as the smoking room. The car has twelve sections, with upper and lower sleeping berths, plus an open drawing room area.

As an old 'heavy weight' car in a streamlined age, the McKeever ended its service days as a regular passenger car on branch line service. One of the museum's charter members, Dr. Bill Boyd, acquired the car in 1966, when the MKT quit the passenger business altogether. He had it transported to his place on Lake Placid, near Seguin, Texas. There is was used as a summer house by his family, especially his two daughters, who would have sleep overs in it with their friends. The car stayed behind when the property was sold and the car sank further and further into disrepair. It even was flooded out by the lake at one point. A subsequent owner of the land, Dr. John Worsham, donated the car to the museum in 1983. He also paid for the not inconsiderable expense of moving it from Seguin to the museum.

Since its arrival at the museum, it has been the subject of much restoration work. Its roof and sides have been painted more than once, and most of the windows have been repaired or replaced. In addition, most of the seats have been re-upholstered. Much of the work was done by a two person team of Frank Miller and Pete Shavney. When Frank passed away, Pete has kept going and has been recently joined by a new volunteer, Bob, who has brought a whole new vitality and sense of energy to the project.

The car, along with the adjacent 404 business car, needs to be repainted. This is a huge task in and of itself which is further complicated by the inordinate cost of the best paint for the job, which runs to about $90.00 a gallon!!!

In the summer of 2009, Bill and Connie Foster decided to "adopt" the McKeever and the 404 Business Car." Despite the sweltering heat, they set about cleaning the cars, installing new carpets, placing period correct items and adding much needed signage. Their efforts yielded stunning results. For the first time in a long time, the cars look amazing, at least on the inside, and visitors get a much better sense of how proud railroads once were of their passenger rolling stock.

We need your help! Despite our best efforts over the decades, the ravages of time and the Texas heat have caused much damage to our entire static display, which consists of the McKeever, the Santa Fe 404 business car and #6, our 1911 Baldwin steam locomotive. We would like to place a cover over the entire length of the display and completely restore the McKeever and 404. The costs are almost staggering.

The McKeever, the 404 and #6 have received continual care. They have been painted and repainted many times. Much interior work has also been performed. The McKeever was completely reupholstered. We have also worked through the interior of the 404, painstakingly refurbishing it back to how it looked in the 1920s. However, both of these cars are 80 years old. Years of exposure to the sun and the rain has caused much of the wood around the windows to deteriorate. This in turn allowed water to enter the cars, making them rust from the inside out.

Our plan this time involves not only a comprehensive exterior and interior restoration but also a full sized shade to completely cover the cars and the locomotive. This much needed addition will protect the cars from the worst of the sun and rain into the future.

We are trying to raise funds from many different sources including some charitable foundations but it is really important to raise as much as possible from our visitors and friends. We need to show how much people care about saving these important historical pieces for another 80 years and beyond!