It eventually became the office and storage space for a plumbing business before it was donated to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in 1995.

The car body was mounted onto a chassis on top of a pair of two-axle trucks; each of the unpowered axles has a set of 33-inch (838 mm) wheels.

[4] In 1906, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad opened a branch line from Carson City to Minden, Nevada.

The profitability of the line led the Virginia and Truckee to start additional passenger service using self-propelled motor cars, which were less expensive to operate than a train pulled by a steam locomotive.

[11] From 1995 to August 1997, the Nevada State Railroad Museum conducted a feasibility study of whether the McKeen could be restored to working order.

[3][12] The study found that most of the historic material needed could be salvaged or replicated, with the exception of the engine, transmission and acetylene lighting.

None of them could "display the current state of high integrity and preservation" seen in Motor Car 22: one was converted into a passenger rail car in Anchorage, Alaska, one was cut in half and used as a shed in Price, Utah, while another was converted into a diesel-electric switcher.