MOPAC #200, St. Louis

[colinhrdng]

 I have a print of an engineering drawing of Missouri Pacific Railroad Pullman Car #200, the St. Louis. I am interested in finding out the history of this car.

It is a side elevation of private car plan No. 1396. It is dated April 28, 1898 in the upper right hand corner and signed by A. M. Parents in the lower right. There is also the number 30896 in the upper right. 

The car builder was Pullman using design plan No. 1398 (B). Lot 2426 was finished and delivered in February 1899. He said that the number 30896 is the drawing number. I have been in contact with Ted Anderson at the Pullman Museum in Union, IL and he has also provided me with more Pullman-specific information – additional drawings etc.

However, after all is said and done, I am still unable to find out this car’s history after its delivery to the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1899.

Can you help flesh out the car’s history such as - was this a private car for railroad executives, where did it run between, how long was it in service, what was its disposition, etc.

[rcdrye]

Pullman cars used for Pullman Sleeping car service were named and not numbered, with some exceptions for tourist cars and some lightweight cars (notably on SP, NP and NKP).  The choice of a number would most likely indicate an office car.  On many roads, office cars with easy to remember numbers like 200 were assigned to fairly high ranking officials.

Since 200 would have been built out of wood (a given from the construction date, but also verified by the Pullman plan number in the 1000 series) it would likely have been replaced in first-line service sometime around or just after WWI by a car constructed of steel.  Not sure what MP's practice was, but SP and AT&SF would have handed the car down to someone less important, say a division superintendent, probably renumbering it in the process.