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Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 10:07 AM

Two of my favorite "Silver" names were from the California Zephyr pool:  "Silver Penthouse", which was one of the dome-sleeper-obs; and "Silver Rapids", a  10-6 that was PRR's contribution to the CZ pool during the period of transcontinental sleeping car routes. 

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 6:41 AM

daveklepper

In an attempt to be have some fun, some names NOT used for sleeping cars:  Silver Pajamas, Silver Pillow, Silver Bathrobe, Silver Kamona, Silver blanket, Siklver Sheets, Silver Bedspread, Silver Bedposts

I'll post a question later today but Dave's comment reminded me of AT&SF's "Blue" series cars that were used on the Chief and other just-below-the-Super Chief trains.  They had 10 roomettes, 3 Double Bedrooms and 2 Compartments.  One of the cars was "Blue Moon".  I had a roomette on it on Amtrak's Southwest Limited in the mid 1970s.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, November 5, 2013 3:18 PM

Correct, and probably it is time for you to ask the next question, although you and anyone else can add additional silver names as they come into your minds.

In an attempt to be have some fun, some names NOT used for sleeping cars:  Silver Pajamas, Silver Pillow, Silver Bathrobe, Silver Kamona, Silver blanket, Siklver Sheets, Silver Bedspread, Silver Bedposts

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, November 5, 2013 1:53 PM

DC transit's partly silver painted PCC was called the "Silver Sightseer" for which DCT charged a single fare ($.25 !)for a loop tour (featured in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" with an older car).  It was a postwar PCC fitted with air conditioning.  The front of the car was in DC Transit's aqua and cream with salmon stripes with a silver roof.  A lower body stripe had "AIR CONDITIONED" in silver letters.  Here's a link to a card site that has a good photo:

http://www.cardcow.com/150437/silver-sightseer-transportation-trains-railroad-trolleys/ 

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, November 5, 2013 6:44 AM

Yes, do remember its function and name?

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, November 4, 2013 6:22 AM

Are you referring to DC Transit's silver-painted PCC?

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, November 3, 2013 3:33 PM

NP Eddie, mail to me is expensive, and you can email what you wish as JPG attachmentts to me at 

daveklepper@yahoo.com

Lookiing over the list, I find that some names got used twice, like Silver Sky, but this one was first used by CB&Q for an obs on an articulated train, and then for  the D&RGW's obs contribution to the CZ.

Railroads have specific words that are used frequently in passenger service:  Railroad, Railway, Express, Limited, Special, Pacific, Alantic, Reserved, Air-conditioned, etc.  Does it not seem as if Silver has made that grade?

In on the word silver as applied to a PCC streetcar.   It was air-conditioned many years before any other PCC was air condidtioned, and its operation was ended, along with its streetcar system by politics,  not by the owner's expressed wishes to continue streetcar operation.      

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Posted by NP Eddie on Saturday, November 2, 2013 8:34 PM

Rob and Dave:

Wayner's "Car Names, Numbers, and Consists" has a list of all of the "Silver" names applied to the various stainless steel passenger train cars that were used on CBQ passenger trains. That listing also includes CZ cars owned by the DRGW, WP, and PRR.

The CBQ owned cars for the NCL and EB were painted for the parent road, with the exception on the CBQ slumbercoaches that were used in NCL service.

I can take photocopies of the CBQ pages and mail them to each of you.

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Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, November 2, 2013 8:34 PM

I'll start with the Burlington's equiment.  It may take more than one installment.  All info from Wayner's "Car Names, Numbers and Consists" plus some notes from other sources.

First "Silver" cars - 1936 Denver Zephyr (Chicago-Denver)

power unit 1800HP  Silver King    Silver Knight

power unit 1200HP  Silver Queen  Silver Princess

power RPO baggage  Silver Courier  Silver Herald

bagg dorm lge      Silver Lining  Silver Bar

64 st coach 16 st dinette   Silver Beam  Silver Bell

The next group were articulated in three car sets

  64 st chair car  Silver City Silver Spruce

  38 seat chair car  Silver City  Silver Plume

  40 seat dining car  Silver Grill Silver Service

two unit articulated

  12 sect  Silver State Silver Skates

  12 sect  Silver Tip  Silver Screen

two unit articulated

  12 sect  Silver Arrow  Silver Tone

  3 CPt 1 DR 6 DBR  Silver Sides  Silver Threads

4 rmt, 4 chbrt, 1 DR, 1 Cpt, 4 DBR   Silver Slipper  Silver Moon

10 parlor seat buffet-obs  Silver Flash  Silver Streak

All of the cars above to C&S for Texas Zephyr service in 1956

 

General Pershing Zephyr 9908 St Louis Kansas City

  power car/baggage  Silver Charger

  70 seat chair  Silver Leaf

  52 seat chair  Silver Eagle

  Dining Parlor Obs  Silver Star

 

Silver Streak Zephyr 9909  Kansas City- Lincoln - Omaha

  E5a  locomotive Silver Bullet

   Baggage  Silver Light

  Bagg/RPO  Silver Sheen

  52 st chair (2)   Silver Gleam  Silver Glow

  Dining/Plr/Obs  Silver Spirit

Prewar pool cars

  Baggage    Silver Chest  Silver Express

  Bagg-Mail  Silver Mail

  48 st diner  Silver Pheasant  Silver Inn  Silver Spoon

  Dining parlor obs  Silver Hours  Silver Fountain

  52 seat chair   Silver Chariot  Silver Trail  Silver Spring  Silver Birch  Silver Brook  Silver Castle

                             Silver Cloud  Silver Crest  Silver Crown  Silver Forest  Silver Alchemy  Silver Cascade

Silver Alchemy and Silver Castle received flat-pane domes in 1945 and 1949, Silver Alchemy

getting the name Silver Dome at that time.

 

Still to come:  Texas Zephyr prewar cars, the CZ, the American Royal, Ak-Sar-Ben, postwar Twin Zephys, Kansas City Zephyr and the 1956 Denver Zephyr.

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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, November 2, 2013 4:36 PM

rcdye: Of course you answered the question and made the entry level.   But I think the readers and certainl I would greatly appreciate a long answer with  a paragraph for each type of CB&Q, DRG&W, and WP car and the actual names (which is really what I was loooking for).    I remember that two of the CZ obs were Silver Planetareum (CB&Q) and Silver Sky (D&RGW).  Silver Colt, Mustang. Pony, and Bronco were the four D&RGW domed coaches, diners Silver Service (CB&Q) and Silver Banquet (D&RGW), coaches converted from section sleepers, D&RGW Silver Aspen and Silver Pine.   RC, tell us the actual names you know and those you can access without a research project.

Yes the three-body (not five, those were the Multis used on Canarsie-14th, four truck "Little Zepheer" for the BMT was often called the Silver Streak.  Probably forgotton by everyone, the aluminum MTA-Boston Pullman Red-Line cars bought for the Quincy service were nicknamed Silver Birds.  A hint about the streetcar, it was an air-conditioned PCC.  

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Posted by KCSfan on Friday, November 1, 2013 10:55 AM

Great answers guys. Since Dave didn't limit this question to the US I'll add four more.

Silver Jubilee - Great Britain's L&NER - London-Newcastle

Silver City Comet - Australia's New South Ry - Orange -Broken Hill

Silver Fern and Silver Star - New Zealand Rys - Wellington-Auckland

Mark

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, November 1, 2013 10:07 AM

One addition:  SEPTA's suburban MU cars, both on PRR and RDG, were referred to as Silverliners.

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Posted by rcdrye on Friday, November 1, 2013 7:00 AM

For the CB&Q 177 cars (Budd), 21 locomotives plus 18 WP cars, 9 D&RGW cars and 1 PRR car assigned to the California Zephyr (Chicago-Oakland) all had "Silver" names.  The Denver Zephyr's (Chicago-Denver) power cars were the first ones with "Silver" in the name (Silver King/Queen, Silver Prince/Princess) but all of the E5s were also named including the still runnable Silver Pilot.  The General Pershing Zephyr got "Silver Charger" in the form of a shovel nose "AA" power car for its St. Louis/Kansas City service. Some of the CB&Q locomotive and cars were owned by C&S and FW&D for Texas Zephyr (Dallas-Denver) service.  Some Silver cars also served on the Burlington-Rock Island "Sam Houston Zephyr" and the joint Burlington/Rock Island "Zephyr Rocket" (St. Louis/Twin Cities).

CB&Q's "Silver" cars had the following configurations, as well as variations.  Some of the cars were articulated - notably the cars from the first DZ

Baggage

Baggage-Mail

50 seat coach

Diner

full parlor

diner/parlor/observation (both round and flat-end configurations)

46-seat dome coach

Pendulum Coach (Silver Pendulum form Pacific Railway Equipment in 1941)

Dome cafe lounge

Lunch counter diner

dome parlor observation

16 section sleeper (Chicago Oakland CZ summer only, 2 WP 1 D&RGW, rebuilt to coaches)

6 section 6 Rmt 4 DBR sleeper (Chicago KC/St Joseph and Chicago St P/Minn)

10 Rmt 6 DBR sleeper (PRR's "Silver Rapids" was this type)

6 DBR 5 CPT sleeper

4-4-1-4 sleeper (one was Silver Slipper, the catalyst for the Pullman breakup)

3 DBR 1 DR dome lounge observation

24 sgl 8 dbl Slumbercoach

The name "Silver Dome" was given to the former coach "Silver Alchemy" when its dome was installed.

Silver Streak Zephyr (9909) Kansas City-Omaha-Lincoln

  Power-baggage, coach, dinette, coach, parlor obs

 

Other "Silver" trains

SAL Silver Meteor(New York/Miami)

SAL Silver Star (New York Miami/St. Petersburg)

SAL Siver Comet (New York, Norfolk to Atlanta and Birmingham

Other "Silver" cars operated by Pullman (1950)

 (pool) Silver Star Plan 2410H 12-1

 NYC Silver Lake plan 4124 6DBR/Lounge

 UP Silver Dollar plan 4053 3DBr/1DR/LoungeObs

 (pool) Silver Brook plan 3950F 3DBr/2Cpt Lounge Obs

 Silver Palace cars before 1900

CNS&M silverliners (18 cars) including one diner-lounge and one combine Chicago-Waukegan-Milwaukee

That gets me above 25.  I can't come up with the RT or Streetcar ones but I'm inclined to think the 5-unit BMT articulated we covered on the forum a while ago might be the RT unit you're thinking of.

Re: IC/CSS&SB 900s - they were retired after the 700s (ex-NYC R2s) arrived.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, October 31, 2013 4:22 AM

And two of my answers were definitely correct, the street trackage and carrying adapter couplers.  Were any of the IC-CSS&SB locos saved?   Didn't one go to Iowa Terminal or to a musuem operation?

My question:  Give all examples of the word "Silver" used in public accomodation scheduled passenger service, including train names, car names, even meals.   But be specific.   Train names must be associated with the railroads involved and end-points.  Cars: interior configuration, railroads, assigned trains with end points, builders, etc.    The one with the most correct answers wins.   Minimum entry 25.  I don't have all the answers myself, but there must be over 100.   One rapid transit example gets an extra point and counts as two.   Ditto one streetcar.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 10:08 AM

The commonality of Mike and Ike and South Shore 900-903 can be found in Iron and Steel Products, a scrap dealer located in Hegewisch until it folded in the early 1960's.  Mike and Ike were scrapped there and South Shore 900-903 were sold by IC to that dealer, who then resold them to South Shore.

I'll give the next question to daveklepper, who put a lot of effort into this question.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 2:56 PM

And all these locomotives carried on board adapter couplers to mate their standard MCB Janny railroad couplers to the non-standard couplers used on the commuter lines mu' cars.   (This was not needed for the MP54's, for the Juniatta double-deckers, or the immediate postwar Pullman-Standard cars.   The need started with the M1's.   But the IC mu's had Tomlinson couplers from the start.    Possibly the adapters  were not needed on the South Shore.)

And at one time or another, did all these locos have an orange paint job?

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 12:30 PM

One thing is for sure, they all handled freight cars over street trackage.   The CSS&SB still has such in Michigan City, and had a lot more when those electric "motors" ran.   Ike and Mike undoubtadly were used on the Bushwick branch of the LIRR, which served several industries near the Bklyn-Queens boarder, but in Brooklyn, that were reached by street trackage.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 11:38 AM

Were Mike and Ike tested on the South Shore?

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 11:17 AM

Since the IC-CSS&SB units were electric and the two LIRR units diesel, we cannot find much commonality in design, unless all had Westinghouse electric motors, perhaps of a specific HP, and all were of a common weight for approximately the same TE.  Regarding location, LIRR regular local service route to Babylon is considered by some a "South Shore" line, so "South Shore" may be common, or is there a Hobart Yard or a Fresh Pond Yard or Jc. along the IC or the CSS&SB?   Or where they all the first of series production of locomotives that were then sold to other railroads as well?   Were they capable of battery operation, off-wire for the electrics and diesel shut down for the LIRR units?

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Posted by henry6 on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 10:31 AM

For freight only service instead of for the ruling passenger services on the two lines.   

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 10:09 AM

Mike and Ike were diesel-electrics built specifically for LIRR.  They were not built for smoke abatement since they did not operate in Manhattan.  The common thread for all of these locomotives runs through my original neighborhood (consider my nom de plume and avatar).

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 7:38 AM

Explanaition, the IC had them built for smoke-abaitment purposes . They went to the CSS&SB when diesel switchers  came to the IC.     All these run on DC power, but the LIRR is 600V and the IC (& CSS&SB) 1500V.   Also, were not the LIRR units originally New York Central T-1's (Harmon - GCT) relocated to the LIRR for East River and Hudson River tunnel wire maintenance?  Replacing 1910 DD1'?  So all these units were relocated from their original assignments.  I wonder if any were saved.

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, October 28, 2013 1:03 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH

What do LIRR 403A/403B (Mike & Ike) and CSS&SB (ex-IC) 900-903 have in common?

They're all Baldwin-Westinghouse, built to comply with smoke abatement ordinances.  900-903 were the first B-W class E electrics.

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Posted by henry6 on Monday, October 28, 2013 10:51 AM

Box cab diesels on electric railroad.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, October 28, 2013 10:11 AM

Since I'm up for the next question, we'll go with this teaser:

What do LIRR 403A/403B (Mike & Ike) and CSS&SB (ex-IC) 900-903 have in common?

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Posted by NP Eddie on Friday, October 25, 2013 8:00 PM

Rob:

Regarding the X-CGW baggage cars, they may have been renumbered to a MofW series (with or without painting) and used as tool cars.

About 10 years ago, I saw four or five BN ownership company service cars in my hometown of Anoka, MN. They were being as tool cars for a track gang. One of those was an X-GN 2600 series express box car.

If those former baggage cars were used in company service, the steam lines may or may not have been removed, but the air brake system would have been converted to freight settings.

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, October 24, 2013 6:57 AM

As far as I know the CGW ex-MILW coaches were scrapped after the end of passenger service.  The GN ex-CGW cars were not listed by the time of the BN merger so I'm pretty sure they were retired after the mail contracts ended in 1967.  The pictures I've found had "storage mail" painted between the doors.

There's an HO brass version of GN 277-279 listed for the "Empire Builder", but I'd guess the most exalted train they were actually used on was the "Western Star".  Between 1964 and the end of most mail service the Milwaukee carried GN storage mail to and from Chicago so these cars may have operated on the Milwaukee as well.

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Posted by NP Eddie on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 5:30 PM

Rob:

Wayner's "Car Names, Numbers, and Consists (page 133) lists CGW coaches 200 and 201 that were purchased for the Minneapolis/Omaha passenger train. The Milwaukee numbers were 4410 and 4416 respectively. I suspect that the CGW combines were in bad shape and were condemned. The CGW purchased three light baggage cars in 1946 from Pullman, numbers 80, 81, and 82.  Page 234 of the above book lists them as purchased by the GN in 1965 and renumbered to 277-279.

Dublin's "More Classic Trains",  page 355, shows pictures of one of the baggage cars and coach 200.

Does anyone know the disposition of the CGW coaches or the GN baggage cars?

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 12:53 PM

CSSHEGEWISCH

I will say that two coaches were sold to CGW for service on its Minneapolis-Omaha local.

 

And you would be right.  Built for the 1935 version of the Hiawatha, they were the only lightweight passenger carrying cars the CGW owned, unless you count the George M. Pullman, the experimental aluminum 3-1-1 observation car buit by Pullman in 1933, which ended up in CGW ownership after 1952, but may not have been used by CGW in revenue service.  CGW did own a pair of lightweight baggage/express cars later sold to Great Northern.

Your question.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 10:06 AM

I will say that two coaches were sold to CGW for service on its Minneapolis-Omaha local.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul

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