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Classic Train Questions Part Deux (50 Years or Older)

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 27, 2020 8:56 AM

daveklepper
Overmod, where are you?

Lost in the trenches fighting the coronavirus situation.

I have time to answer these, but not think up proper questions.  Ask something while we're waiting...

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Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, March 28, 2020 4:02 PM

Missouri Pacific was famous for its service from St. louis to Mexico City.  This other railroad also offered service from St. Louis to Mexico.

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:08 AM

Yoo are not specifying passenger service.   The Missouri-Kansas-Texas did have at least one line to the Mexican border and interchanged freight cars with NdeM.  I see no record of their having through passenger service, but perhaps they did.

The St. Louis - San Francisco also linked St. Louis with many Texas points, but have not found any line of theirs to the Mexican border.

/

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Posted by rcdrye on Sunday, March 29, 2020 12:32 PM

Definitely passenger service from St. Louis to Mexico. Even streamlined! All on one railroad!

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 29, 2020 5:27 PM

Did he say Mexico the country or does he mean something else, perhaps?  I have a picture of a KCS streamlined passenger locomotive going through Mexico, in 2013 no less.  Catch is, it's Mexico, Missouri...

And Mexico City is a very different thing, and a much longer trip involving significant peak altitude, than just getting to, or across, the Mexican border... theoretically at least you could have taken SSW from St. Louis to Brinkley and thence connected with the Lone Star and SP to go over the SD&AE... 

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Posted by rcdrye on Sunday, March 29, 2020 5:50 PM

I just said Mexico.  You guys figure it out...

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 29, 2020 6:15 PM

Does Cotton Belt and SP count as one railroad?

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Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:33 PM

If Mexico, Missouri, counts, the Wabash served the city with two streamlined City trains--St. Louis and Kansas City.

Incidentally, the capital of Mexico is Mexico, D. F.; not Mexico City.

Mexico in Indiana, Kentucky, and New York do not enter into this.

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Posted by zugmann on Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:44 PM

rcdrye

I just said Mexico.  You guys figure it out...

 

PRR to Mexico, PA? 

  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:57 PM

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, March 30, 2020 3:38 AM

WOW!!!!!    Congratulations!!!

So, we do define Amtrak as a railroad.   No problem.  Let us hope it becomes a better one.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 5:13 AM

zugmann
PRR to Mexico, PA?

Has to be a streamlined train from St. Louis to qualify.  Name one and he may have to give it to you...

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 5:16 AM

Deggesty
Incidentally, the capital of Mexico is Mexico, D. F.; not Mexico City.

That's nice.  But where did the Guide and the MoPac advertisements say the train in his question went?

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 5:22 AM

daveklepper
So, we do define Amtrak as a railroad.

No, he couldn't do that -- he said all ON one railroad.  Amtrak didn't own that railroad ... then or now.

He did, however, get the first part of his revenge on me for the Niagara question... if the Amtrak train was just the truncated continuation of the MoPac train under 'other auspices'.

It would have cost coach passengers $2.50 to ride across the bridge... in a roomette $3.00, which sure beats walking and dickering with Customs on foot returning... we had a thread in late 2013 that discussed the sleeper going further into Mexico on FEM, and in 1980 there was an Amtrak publication that had Aztec Eagle service extended to the maquiladora capital Monterrey.

My knowledge of the actual Inter-American is pretty well limited to the 1974 Texas Monthly story

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/waiting-for-the-train

which might be the topic of some discussion about how it answers this question as posed.

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, March 30, 2020 6:28 AM

So here's the big hint of the day.  Something pictured in the "strange things" thread was part of the streamlined train.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 9:06 AM

Ex-NYC cars like the many that went to NdeM?

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, March 30, 2020 2:40 PM

I didn't think this would be this hard...  The streamlined train on this route before 1947 carried the names of the two railroads involved in its operation in the herald of one of them on the nose of the specially assigned unit and on some other units used in the service from time to time.  After 1947 the "other" railroad's name wasn't used on the streamlined train, though it advertised its portion of the joint operation in its own timetables.  The "other" railroad was not part of the operation between St. Louis and Mexico.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 3:34 PM

.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 3:37 PM

Since it's two railroads and not just one, we have to bring up the Raymond & Whitcomb "Land Cruise Liners" on Katy/Frisco after 1929, and the subsequent "City of Mexico" (that ran until 1940); I remember the Penn-Texas from another question.  My reference cannily doesn't say if these things actually crossed the border or just went up to it.

There is also PRR/MoPac/T&P, the Texas Eagle to San Antonio (or presumably Frisco/Katy special with the red E7s and painted ribbed-side cars to there) with sleeper taken over at San Antonio by the Aztec Eagle/Aguila Azteca.  (That was the train which got pushed to the middle of the bridge by a Baldwin; the Mexicans did customs inspection while out on the middle of the bridge; then a steam switcher coupled on and pulled the thing into Nuevo Laredo...)

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, March 30, 2020 3:41 PM

Since it's two railroads and not just one, we have to bring up the Raymond & Whitcomb "Land Cruise Liners" on Katy/Frisco after 1929, and the subsequent "City of Mexico" (that ran until 1940).  My reference cannily doesn't say if these things actually crossed the border or just went up to it.

There is also PRR/MoPac/T&P, the Penn-Texas and Texas Eagle/'South Texas Eagle' to San Antonio (or presumably Frisco/Katy special with the red E7s and painted ribbed-side cars to there) with sleeper at one point taken over at San Antonio by the Aztec Eagle/Aguila Azteca.  (That was the train which got pushed to the middle of the bridge by a Baldwin; the Mexicans did customs inspection while out on the middle of the bridge; then a steam switcher coupled on and pulled the thing into Nuevo Laredo...)

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, March 30, 2020 4:55 PM

You guys are heavily overthinking this (not that it isn't entertaining)...  The same engine crew that left St. Louis arrived in Mexico.

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, March 30, 2020 5:43 PM

The City of St. Louis, serving St. Louis and Mexico, Missouri, is the only one I can think of that would have had a UP engine on it.

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, March 30, 2020 6:48 PM

How did I miss that - that wasn't the line I was looking for but it DOES meet the criteria, so I guess you win.  The Wabash line from St. Louis to Kansas City passed through Mexico Mo.  Most of the time the Wabash supplied the power for the City of St. Louis as well as Wabash's own trains.

What I was looking for was the Burlington.  The Ozark State Zephyr and the General Pershing Zephyr, along with some other trains, both plied the CB&Q/Alton route from St. Louis to Kansas City, changing from Burlington to Alton iron westbound in Mexico.  Up unitl 1947 the Zephyr sets had "Alton Burlington" in what was otherwise a very recognizable Burlington logo on the front of Zephyr set 9902 (one of the original Twin Zephyrs) and 9908 (built for the run in 1939.  After the GM&O merger the logos returned to the normal "Burlington Route" though the GM&O still listed its participation in the Official Guide.

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, March 30, 2020 8:05 PM

A question: did train and engine crews change at Mexico with the change in roads? (This is NOT a quiz question.)

I had not studied the Q/Alton route, so I was unaware of those trains through Mexico.

Quiz question: What new sleeping accommodation did the original Cities of San Francisco and LosAngeles have (this was also on several succeeding trains)?

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 2:48 AM

Traditional heavyweight Pullman cars had open sections.  At night, the upper and lower berths were separated from the aisle by two heavy curtains, one coming from a pocktet at each end of the berths.  The two articulated streamliners had cars of this type.

But each also had one car with 11 "closed section" berths. A new development.  From what I make out, the curtains were replaced by sliding panels, one forming a sliding door.  In any case, this was a step toward the development of the roomette, which first showed up in 1937 test cars on the AT&SF Super Chief and in production lightweight cars for the 20th Century Limited and Broadway in 1938.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 8:00 AM

Deggesty
A question: did train and engine crews change at Mexico with the change in roads? (This is NOT a quiz question.)

For the non-streamlined trains engines operated through with CB&Q engines dominating the pool.  Alton/GM&O crews operated west of Mexico.  The streamlined trains had "Alton Burlington" in place of "Burlington Route" and they also operated through. Post 1947 GM&O and CB&Q shifted to more of a trackage rights kind of arrangement.  The "Alton Burlington" logo was applied to a couple of shovelnoses and at least one E5.

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 8:32 AM

daveklepper

Traditional heavyweight Pullman cars had open sections.  At night, the upper and lower berths were separated from the aisle by two heavy curtains, one coming from a pocktet at each end of the berths.  The two articulated streamliners had cars of this type.

But each also had one car with 11 "closed section" berths. A new development.  From what I make out, the curtains were replaced by sliding panels, one forming a sliding door.  In any case, this was a step toward the development of the roomette, which first showed up in 1937 test cars on the AT&SF Super Chief and in production lightweight cars for the 20th Century Limited and Broadway in 1938.

 

You have it, Dave!

The description in Car Names Numbers and Consists is "Enclosed Sections." and the diagrams show an opening on the side at one end of each section. I never saw one, but I imagine that the porters did not really like them because they appear to be really cramped inside. So far as I know, no other roads ever used such.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 10:23 AM

After looking at the car diagrams, it would appear that an enclosed section has about as much space (not much) as a roomette on a Superliner.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 10:58 AM

Duplicate

Johnny

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 12:27 PM

To handle wartime (WWII) traffic, one electric system leased surplus equipment from another, and just a bit earlier, but for a difference reason, the same occured elsewhere. After WWII, both leases were terminated, the second sometime after the first.  In the first case, after the return to the original system, the cars were never used again in regular service, although L believe a fan-trip may have been operated with them before they were scrapped.  In the second case, the cars were of two types but the same body design, and one type did return for service for a short time before the system went bus.

In all four cases, equipment moves were on their own wheels, under their own power.

Name all four systems.   One of the systems was reknown for something very very peculiar.

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