Help wanted dating pictures

[Dutchsteam]

Hi everyone,

First off let me introduce myself. I am a Dutchman, living in Denmark and a collector of old Dutch railway photographs. The reason I ended up here is because last week I stumbled upon a few nice, old photographs showing an impressive American streamlined diesel. I loved the picture at once, so I bought the lot of eleven pictures it was part of.

The pictures show the Sam Houston Zephyr and a Sunbeam at Dallas railway station. But I can't really date the photographs. I expect them to be taken in the 1940's but any help to narrow that down would be greatly appreciated.

The complete set can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spoorwegarchief/albums/72157664118325919

Eelco

[Firelock76]

Looking at one of the cars in the last picture and the men's clothing I suspect it's in the immediate post-war era, say 1946 to 1949.  From 1950 onward American car bodies started to change dramatically.

Best guess on my part.

[wanswheel]

The first Sam Houston Zephyr destroyed by fire on Dec. 19, 1944. 

Dr. Pepper sign evidently glowed until 1953.

https://books.google.com/books?id=1s86NvaFBkUC&pg=PA52&dq=%22Brussels+and+Axminster+rugs+covering+the+floors%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQj87btIXLAhVLnBoKHcMcCAsQ6AEIMDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Brussels%20and%20Axminster%20rugs%20covering%20the%20floors%22&f=false

[ndbprr]

The easiest way to approximate a date is to check the roautos for the newest one. I would say late 40s also. A similar Burlington stainless steel bodied e unit resides at the Illinois railroad museum and is operated by them.

[rcdrye]

The sun angle makes it hard to tell so some of this is guesswork.  Wanswheel's mid-to-late 1940s date suggests that the Burlington consist is a replacement for the destroyed Zephyr 9901 (one of the original Twin Zephyrs).  T&NO (SP)'s Sunbeam ran with streamlined pacifics, a lightweight combine, two Daylight-style articulated chair car pairs plus a parlor car and diner-lounge-observation.  There were two train sets that ran as the Hustler in each direction in the morning and the Sunbeam in each direction in the afternoon.  The Hustler was discontinued in 1954, the Sunbeam in 1955.

The Zephyr is actually running for the Burlington-Rock Island, a joint operation between Dallas and Houston created from the Trinity and Brazos River in 1930. The Burlington E5 appears to belong to the CB&Q, not the Colorado and Southern/Fort Worth and Denver. The other train pair on the run was supplied by the Rock Island, probably the Twin Cities-Houston Twin Star Rocket by this time.

The interurbans and steeple cab motor belonged to the Sand Springs Railway, still in operation today, though passenger service ended in 1947 and electric freight operation in 1955.  A short 10 mile suburban line linking Tulsa Oklahoma with Sand Springs, it was pretty sucessful by US interurban standards.