PASMITHTo the best of my knowledge, CP/SP never owned any "Shorty's" ( 34 ft range). On the other hand, on page 39 of John Signor's " Southern Pacific Shasta Division" there is an image of an SP postcard depicting a 4-4-0 pulling passenger cars in the late 1800's along the upper Sacramento River Canyon. If you count the windows, they look exactly like the MDC 34 ft version. Now then, I have been totally misled in the past by doctored postcards. Having said that, take a look at the photo on page 373 of Guy Dunscomb book " A Century of Southern Pacific Steam" and count the windows on the combine at the end of the train or the stakes on the flat cars. This photo would lead me to believe that this SP 1895 combine is closer to 34ft than it is to 50. What say the SP experts out there? Peter Smith, Memphis
Baggage type things might well be shorter than the standard coach. RPOs were, as were the lightweight baggage cars (usually)
Mrk: No, not an actual car made out of metal, but the car approximating such. What I think I'm doing is seeing thwe vertical lines on cars like the Black roofed ME&O, (Roundhouse's Overlands, and thinking that those are metal plate seam approximations. Again, I think we've established I'm mistaken, so I'll clear up my confusion for you.
Harriman DIner does look a tad longer than the car would be
No sign of a Harriman obs. Might check on the SUnbeam though, they ran some Harrimans, and it seems like one of the smaller daylights did to, or maybe it was rhe Sunbeam that it picked up. Seen the pictures
-Morgan
Flashwave Harriman DIner does look a tad longer than the car would be No sign of a Harriman obs. Might check on the SUnbeam though, they ran some Harrimans, and it seems like one of the smaller daylights did to, or maybe it was rhe Sunbeam that it picked up. Seen the pictures
I can't make out the car number of the diner pictured, but the car definitely looks like one of the six class 77-D-2 diners which, not coincidentally, were 76'-11.5" long over the end sills. They were rebuilt from 72' observation car class 72-0-1 (which also had arch-roofs and were built in 1913-14) at Southern Pacific's Sacramento shops from 1921-24. SP's heavyweight observation cars were either 72, 75, 77, or 80 feet long, and as I said before, the shortest SP heavyweight diners and observation cars were 72' long, not 60' as modeled by Roundhouse. On the other hand, there were Harriman-era coaches, baggage cars, and RPOs as short as 60'.
Mark
Addendum. The SP also had a small number of all-steel, arched-roofed, forty-foot long Postal cars acquired in 1909. I can't recall which, but either all or many were later converted to combination RPO/baggage cars. The reason, I presume, is that the Post Office had decided to have postal compartments either 15, 30, or 60 feet long.
I'm a big fan of head-end equipment and have always liked the looks of those Harriman baggage cars, so my road, taking advantage of one of the perks of free-lancing, picked one up. The shops modified the doors somewhat, along with the underbody, then added six-wheel trucks:
Wayne
doctorwayne I'm a big fan of head-end equipment and have always liked the looks of those Harriman baggage cars,...
I'm a big fan of head-end equipment and have always liked the looks of those Harriman baggage cars,...
Me too. That's why I like mail/express trains. Switching isn't just for freight trains.
Well, they ARE very close to a couple of the cars used on the long-lost Gorre & Daphetid....
Wow did you dig up an old thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The G&D was a model by the way.