Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

[NP Eddie]

Dave and All:

This railroad (no longer operating) had six lightweight coaches that were self contained, that is they had generators for heat, etc. Name the railroad that purchased them and what was their disposition?

Dave:

I did not understand your comment about the NP having second hand cars, as the SPS and CBQ contributed cars to the EB and NCL pool.

 

Ed Burns

[rcdrye]

The NP sleeper-domes (one owned by SP&S and two by CB&Q) were all built new as 4 rmt 4 duplex single room, 4 DBR cars for the North Coast Limited. The duplex single rooms were all on the same level under the dome. Some of the cars had two single rooms removed, and a buffet installed, to allow retirement of the NCL's observation cars.  The domes got tables as well, served by a dumbwaiter like UP's Dome Diners.

[NP Eddie]

Dave and Rob:

I forgot that the NP purchased 15 lightweight coaches from the CNW and MKT.

A total of six dome sleepers (one CBQ and five NP) were converted to "Lounge in the Sky" cars. Two single room were removed and a buffet placed in that area. My wife and I rode on the NCL back from Seattle in 1971 as part of our honeymoon. As information, one as built NCL observation is at the Duluth transportation museum. I was working an afternoon clerking job at old Northtown and saw the NCL many times.

Ed Burns

[NP Eddie]

I forgot that the NP purchased used Slumbecoaches also.

Ed Burns

[daveklepper]

were the six lightweight self-contained coaches purchased by the Georgia Railroad for use on mixed trains?    Then went to the Southern and modified as regular steam-heat coaches?

[rcdrye]

Or were they the coaches M&St. L purchased that were later traded to C&O for an equal number of hopper cars?

[NP Eddie]

Dave: Nope.

Rob:

You have the right railroad, but the MSTL traded their two RDC's to the C&O for 32 coal hoppers.  

Ed Burns

[rcdrye]

They must be the ones they bought to use with the gas-electrics.

M&St. L 50,52-55 and 51 (Budd 1948) ended up as CRI&P 362-367 in 1956 and 1957.

362 Missouri

363 Herington

364 Duncan

365 El Reno

366 Silvis

367 Armourdale

[NP Eddie]

Rob:

Wow!!! You are good. It is interesting that the MSTL bought the RDC's and coaches and did not keep them very long.

Next question to you.

Ed Burns

[rcdrye]

This well known western train was really a system of trains that ran into the early 1950s under the same train name in multiple sections over various routes, with three eastern endpoints and two western endpoints.  The northern- and southernmost of the eastern endpoints were over 1000 miles apart, the northern- and southernmost of the western endpoints about 500 miles apart.  Name the railroad, the train, and at least four of the endpoints.

[FlyingCrow]

Just what popped into my head -  The Californian  .   But the mileage doesn't work out.

[rcdrye]

You're sort of on the right track.  That was the RI/SP version...

[daveklepper]

If he was sort of on the right track, then possibly the Rock Island Rocket(s) is the right anwer, with the westernmost going as far as Tucomcarri, one split to go to Denver and Colorado Springs, and Memphis and Chicago two of the eastern terminals.

I think this is the answer, but you may possibly be thinking of the C&NW 400s or the Zephyrsm but most of these lasted into the 1960s, not just the 1950s.

[rcdrye]

Buck had the right geography, just the wrong carrier(s) and trains.

[ZephyrOverland]

rcdrye

This well known western train was really a system of trains that ran into the early 1950s under the same train name in multiple sections over various routes, with three eastern endpoints and two western endpoints.  The northern- and southernmost of the eastern endpoints were over 1000 miles apart, the northern- and southernmost of the western endpoints about 500 miles apart.  Name the railroad, the train, and at least four of the endpoints.

 

Would this be MP's Sunshine Special?  Eastern endpoints would include New York, St. Louis and Memphis.  Western endpoints would include San Antonio and El Paso.

[rcdrye]

Think the Sunshine Special's route pattern set on its side. 

Thie train I'm looking for never quite got out of the heavyweight era, and shared much of its route structure with streamlined trains that were well known even outside of railroad circles.

The primary endpoints were the northeast and southwest, but the train was advertised from time to time with the southeast and northwestern endpoints.

[Deggesty]

How about the Santa Fe's Grand Canyon? Chicago-Los Angeles across Colorado and across Oklahoma and Texas; Chicago-LA cars, Dallas-LA car, and New Orleans-Oakland car.

Via C&EI and L&N, Chicago to New Orleans was more than 1000 miles; Santa Fe's route between Oakland and LA is over 500 miles.

[rcdrye]

Just back your first answer up a couple of decades and think heavyweight (and often multiple section).

[daveklepper]

The UP Overland Limited, with eastern destinations Chicago, St. Louis, and the Twin Cities, and west coast destinations Portland (or Seattle?), Oakland, and Los Angeles.

[rcdrye]

This train "system" operated under a single name, like the Sunshine Special.

[FlyingCrow]

I'm going to counterattack with The California Limited.   DFW, Chicago, Los Angeles, SFO with through sleeping cars from everywhere to anytime!

[rcdrye]

That's it!  Although the Texas and Northern California legs were only operated as California Limited sections some of the time, the train ran on both the northern and southern transcon, with cars from Chicago, New Orleans (MP) via Houston, and DFW, to Los Angeles and Richmond/Oakland.  By the early 1950s it had become a meal stop train for part of its run and lost most of its sleepers, carrying a lot of local mail and express.  In the 1910s and early 1920s, before the Chief was inaugurated, as many as seven sections were operated in busy periods, some all-Pullman.

[FlyingCrow]

I'm working on a question...sometime today! 

Ok..this is a little goofy, but true:

In a curious move for which, to date, there has been no written explanation, before WW1 trains operating into Savannah's Union Station were governed by this rule peculiar for the location.

 

[KCSfan]

I know it was a stub ended station but I've been unable to find anything unusual about operations there. It's  just a guess but maybe trains were preceded by a mounted rider on horseback like the way ACL trains were in Gainsville, FL.

Mark

[daveklepper]

1.   All trains had to back into the station.   2. All trains had to come to a full stop with the rear, now leading, at the outer end of the platform before proceeding further into the station.

[FlyingCrow]

HINT: "peculiar for this location".    HINT 2.  I picked this up from a reproduction of a timetable for around the turn of the century we ran in LINES SOUTH (ACL & SAL HS).  Nobody can explain it.

[rcdrye]

Was there a separate unloading area for Jim Crow equipment?

[Deggesty]

rcdrye

Was there a separate unloading area for Jim Crow equipment?

 

That would have made them unload directly to the ground. Was there anything about stopping after the last car was clear of the platform when leaving?

The only time I was in that station, I probably was fast asleep; I was two years old and the only thing I remember about the trip was looking out a window with a coat over my head (to block the light inside the car) soon after we left Jacksonville.

[KCSfan]

Before entering the station was the engine uncoupled and run around the cars to back the train into the train shed?

Mark

[Deggesty]

KCSfan

Before entering the station was the engine uncoupled and run around the cars to back the train into the train shed?

Mark

 

That's an interesting thought. Still, someone would have had to be on the rear of the engine to tell the engineer to stop short of the bumping post--unless bumping the post was an acceptable practice. And, unless the engine was changed in Savannah, the process would have had to be reversed when leaving.