Chessie Safety Express (S2) Car No.22 Observation (Edward G. Hooper)

[Jones1945]

This arch roof modernized heavyweight car caught my attention when I saw it in one of the videos of Chessie Safety Express on YouTube. A legit source stated that it was ex-B&O 80-seat coach 5234 built-in 1923 by Pullman and later became buffet lounge BE observation. I note the rear trucks were placed closer to the edge of the car; was that part of the modification when B&O converted it from a coach to a buffet lounge observation? 

By the way, is there any book or article worth reading which is about modernized heavyweight passenger equipment in North America? (Pennsy called them betterment car) Thanks a lot!

http://rr-fallenflags.org/misc-r/rrp-o1776goa.jpg

http://passcarphotos.rypn.org/Indices/C3.htm

 

http://www.themetrains.com/chessie-safety-express-consist-season-two-22-observation-car.htm

 

[M636C]

 I note the rear trucks were placed closer to the edge of the car; was that part of the modification when B&O converted it from a coach to a buffet lounge observation? 

Coaches usually have vestibules at both ends to speed up loading and unloading. It looks like the vestibule was removed from what became the observation end. Note the frame curving down at the rear end and the same feature next to the vestibule steps at the other end.

Peter

[BaltACD]

I may be wrong, as I don't have a genialogy of the car at hand, but the car looks to be the one that graced the rear of the B&O's Royal Blue until that train's operation was discontinued when the B&O discontinued operation of all passenger trains between Washington and New York in April 1958.

[Jones1945]

M636C

Coaches usually have vestibules at both ends to speed up loading and unloading. It looks like the vestibule was removed from what became the observation end. Note the frame curving down at the rear end and the same feature next to the vestibule steps at the other end.

Peter 

Thank you, Peter. Was it worth the effort to remove the vestibule like this because the vestibule should be sturdy enough to support the new observation end? I think this approach made the cars look better though. My favorite train had a car with a similar look:

PRR #9255 PB70ER 

BaltACD

I may be wrong, as I don't have a genealogy of the car at hand, but the car looks to be the one that graced the rear of the B&O's Royal Blue until that train's operation was discontinued when the B&O discontinued operation of all passenger trains between Washington and New York in April 1958.

Balt, you are probably right, It was B&O 3302. But I am not sure if this observation car was with the Royal Blue or not. 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=471887

I wonder who inspired who... the rear windows on B&O were larger though. 

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=122191

 

[Miningman]

From Mike:

http://www.bullsheet.com/hoopercar.html

The Baltimore Sun, March 16, 1974

Funeral services for Edward G. Hooper, retired assistant to the corporate secretary of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, were held yesterday at the Cook Brooks funeral establishment in Towson. Mr. Hooper, who was 90 and had lived for many years in Northwood, died Tuesday.

 

NRHS Bulletin Vol. 36, No. 3, 1971

 

Chairman Edward G. Hooper had an opportunity to ride aboard Chapter car No. 3302, the Edward G. Hooper, from Glyndon, Md. to Baltimore, Md. on October 11, 1970. The car was part of an 18-car Chapter special headed by former NKP steam locomotive No. 759, which had originated in Hagerstown, Md. It was the first Chapter-sponsored fan trip to have begun outside of Baltimore and was highly successful.

 

Nation’s Business, November 1950

 

When you see a group of serious, middle-aged men walking through a railroad yard, busily examining engines and cars, don’t jump to the conclusion that they are railroad inspectors. They are likely to be members of the National Railway Historical Society on a field trip. 

 

Winter and summer members of NRHS take ''rail rambles" on chartered trains to points of railroad interest. The group was organized informally in August, 1935, by a group of rail enthusiasts riding in parlor car No. 100 of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway on the farewell trip of that line. The Society, consolidating with two small groups, the Interstate Trolley Club and the Lancaster (Pa,) Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, was incorporated in 1937. 

 

In the past 15 years members have traveled thousands of miles by steam, diesel and electric power. They have covered main lines, short lines, branch lines, interurban and street railways. The war years curtailed activities but membership now includes residents of 34 states, Canada, England, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and even New Zealand. 

 

Edward G, Hooper, president, explains that the aim of the society is "to preserve historical information about fast disappearing railroad and trolley lines.” Amateur photographers in the group take hundreds of pictures a year on field trips and farewell runs. 

 

In addition to local and regional fan trips, vacations of members always are routed by rail. Statistics on schedules, condition and types of equipment and scenic sights are included in vacation reports, which appear in the NRHS quarterly magazine. 

 

Conventions, held annually since 1946 over Labor Day weekends, are highlighted by trolley trips, inspection of railroad yards and rolling stock. 

 

 

Though Hooper is a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad official, less than two per cent of the members are railroaders. Membership is open to persons more than 16, but only a few are less than 35. Eight members are women. Most members are middle-aged and professional men, armchair people to whom railroading is a hobby. 

 

[Miningman]

oops.. sorry wrong thread.. skip forward.

[M636C]

By the way, is there any book or article worth reading which is about modernized heavyweight passenger equipment in North America? (Pennsy called them betterment car) Thanks a lot!

I'd recommend Arthur Dubin's "Some Classic Trains" and "More Classic Trains", both originally published by Kalmbach and based on (many) articles in Trains Magazine in the 1960s. It covers the Royal Blue, the Forty Niner, the GM&O Gulf Coast Rebel and a number of lesser known Southern (area) trains that used rebuilt heavyweight cars. As "Trains" observed recently, the Panama Limited observation "Gulfport" was a rebuilt heavyweight car...

There is good coverage of the Forty Niner in Kratville's UP Streamliners....

Peter

[Jones1945]

Thank you very much for the information, Mike and Miningman! 

The article mentioned about Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway car #100:

And the car was used on the Columbian (and  used by the B&O as an extra car in the 'Metropolitan,' the 'Shenandoah' and the 'Capitol Limited.): 

I think this is B&O #3302: 

http://www.washingtonterminal.org/Temp_Upgrade/component/phocagallery/2-ivy-city/detail/58-b-o-columbian-s-observation-car-at-ivy-city-coach-yard-march-13th-1948?tmpl=component&Itemid=1

The car is a witness of the change of habbit on transportation of people in America (a.k.a the demise of LD Passenger Services )

[Jones1945]

M636C

By the way, is there any book or article worth reading which is about modernized heavyweight passenger equipment in North America? (Pennsy called them betterment car) Thanks a lot!

I'd recommend Arthur Dubin's "Some Classic Trains" and "More Classic Trains", both originally published by Kalmbach and based on (many) articles in Trains Magazine in the 1960s. It covers the Royal Blue, the Forty Niner, the GM&O Gulf Coast Rebel and a number of lesser known Southern (area) trains that used rebuilt heavyweight cars. As "Trains" observed recently, the Panama Limited observation "Gulfport" was a rebuilt heavyweight car...

There is good coverage of the Forty Niner in Kratville's UP Streamliners....

Peter

Thanks a lot for the book list!! I am collecting pictures and gathering information about betterment car or modernized heavyweight passenger car recently. I want to further study the topic in-depth since I always think that modernized heavyweight passenger equipment was sometimes sexier than new pre-war or early post-war cars.