Passenger Cars on the City of Miami/Seminole

greenspun.com : LUSENET : ACL and SAL Railroads Historical Society : One Thread

While recuperating from foot surgery and enduring a blackout-that also fried my computer's hard drive and destroyed an article that was 80% finished, I did some research on the various issues we discussed in the recent spate of communications on the cars used on the City of Miami, Seminole and the relationship between the ACL "River" cars. So here goes:

The IC in 1942 inaugurated the streamlined "Panama Limited", the last pre-war streamlined train. At the time it was constructed, Pullman was constructing a series of cars in two configurations for a series of railroads. These two configurations were 4 double bedrooms-4 compartments and 2 drawing rooms and 6 roomettes-6 sections-4 double bedrooms. The Panama Limited had the following 6-6-4 cars delivered in April 1942 under Plan 4099 Lot 6669:Banana Road,Blue Grass State,King Coal,King Cotton, Land O' Strawberries,Magnolia State, Pelican State, Petroleum,Prairie State, Sugarland,Timberland,and Volunteer State. The Land O'Strawberries was converted to Postal car 158 in 1964, The King Coal was converted to postal car 159 in 1964 and then to baggage car 1841. The Pelican State was converted to postal car 160 in 1965 and subsequently to baggage car 1842. Blue Grass State became coach 2100 4/67, Petroleum became coach 2101 4/67 and Sugarland became coach 2102 4/67. Magnolia State and Banana Road received car numbers 3535 and 3536 respectively in 1969.

These cars when built had upper berth windows over the windows in the section section-end of the car.

The IC also had two 4-4-2 cars built for the Panama Limited. They were built under Pullman Plan 4069H Lot 6668 in April 1942 and were named "Chicagoland" and St. Louisan". The Chicagoland was numbered 3540 in 1969. TheIC subsequently purchased 4-4-2 cars from the New York Central in two batches. The first batch of cars was purchased in November 1958 when the following cars were renamed: Galena ex Brooklyn Bridge, Gilman ex Eads Bridge, Greenville ex Imperial Chariot, and Grenada ex Imperial Crown. Between October 1962 and September 1963, the following NYC sleepers were purchased: Haleyville ex Imperial Chamber, Hammond ex Imperial Dome,Harvey ex Imperial Fleet, Hattiesburg ex Imperial Jewel, Hazelhurst ex Imperial Manor, Homewood ex Imperial State and Hyde Park ex Imperial Valley.

Two other Panama Limited cars that appeared on the City of Miami were the two Bamboo Grove sleeper lounge cars General Beauregard and General Jackson. They were built to Pullman plan 4101 Lot 6671 in April 1942 and had 1 compartment, 1 drawing room and 3 double bedrooms.

In 1938, 14 4-4-2 cars were built for the New York Central for 20th Century Limited service. The cars were built to Pullman plan 4069B Lot 6540 3/4 1938. Between 4/49 and 9/49 these 14 cars were renamed for use in the post war 20th Century Limited. They were not otherwise rebuilt-just refurbished:

Imperial Canyon-Henry Hudson Bridge(CN) Imperial Castle-Bear Mountain Bridge(CN) Imperial Falls-Bay Bridge(ACL) Imperial Court-Castleton Bridge(CN) Imperial Forest-George Washington Bridge(ACL) Imperial Mansion-High Bridge(ACL Imperial Bay-Queensboro Bridge Imperial Palace-Thousand Islands Bridge Imperial Garden-Tri-Boro Bridge(CN) Imperial Arch-Suspension Bridge(ACL) Imperial Chateau-International Bridge Imperial Fountain-Rip Van Winkle Bridge(ACL) Imperial Highlands-Eads Bridge(IC) Imperial House-Brooklyn Bridge(IC)

Those cars that were sold to other railroads are so identified. In October 1962, the six cars identified as ACL were rebuilt to Pullman Plan 6013 4 compartments-4 Drawing Rooms

George Washington Bridge-Cape Fear River Rip Van Winkle Bridge-Kissimmee River Suspension Bridge-Manatee River Bay Bridge-Ortega River Bear Mountain Bridge-Savannah River High Bridge-Suwanee River

The Rip Van Winkle Bridge was under Pullman lease and was repainted in IC colors while still under NYC ownership.

Phew!

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), August 18, 2003


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