MADRID -- The St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum now has a historic railroad motorcar.

The new addition was donated by the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority.

Wade Davis, executive director of the authority, said the OBPA was “pleased to donate the car to the Museum’s collection of historic items where it will preserve a piece of the North Country’s railroad history.”

The motorcar was unveiled at the museum’s recent exhibition and was an “immediate hit for the young and old,” according to a release from the museum.

The car was built by Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc. perhaps as early as the 1920s. Its engine is believed to have been built by the Waukesha Motor Co.

“Motorcars were used to carry men and pull equipment to maintain the railways. In the early 1900s they replaced the open hand-pumped cars, which exposed men to all types of weather and made for tiring return trips at the end of the day,” the release said.

Beginning in the 1960s motorcars were gradually replaced by regular road vehicles specially equipped with steel wheels that could be lowered for use on railroad tracks.

The New York and Ogdensburg Railroad, which operates the authority’s short-line between Ogdensburg and Norwood, transported the car.

The motorcar now rests on tracks provided by Knowlton & Sons, Norwood, which the museum has bedded in gravel. The museum will develop an exhibit to help assure they are not forgotten.