Thanks. Didn't think to look at those.
I went to Randall's Passenger Car Library, volume 1 and, on page 189, identified
the 4 cylinder propane cabinet. No doubt the Silver Kettle and Silver Cup
Chuckwagon cars also used propane. If fact, if I remember correctly, back in
1986, when VIA Rail Canada's Super Continental/Skeena hit a freight train head
on, the propane tanks in the 1955-built Budd Skyline Lounge burst into flame,
indicating Budd was putting propane on Dome Coffee Shop cars as early as 1955.
Check the under-floor diagrams for the 1952 Q diners on page 140, and, in the
same spot as were the propane cylinders on the 1956 diners, the label reads fuel
cylinders, suggesting these cars may also have used propane. The book has no
under-floor diagrams for the 1949 CZ diners, nor the 1947 TCZ diners, yet in
pictures thereof, I think I can identify the tanks on them as well. So maybe
they also used propane.
What made me wonder was that, when I was riding the Builder this spring, my car
attendant told me his first job with Amtrak was to load the wood logs into the
diners, so Amtrak's original equipment did have diners with woodburning stoves.
I also remember reading how Abe Smith, Director of Dining Car Services for the
New York Central Railroad until 1966, had innovated the use of composite logs
(of crushed woodchips) in the Central's diners as a means of saving money.
sjl
SilvrDome@a... wrote:
> Silver Chef and Tureen used Propane. Check out builders photos, you can see
> the 4 Tank covers hanging just below the skirt. I'm not sure if they were
> exclusively propane.
>
> Hubert
>
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