----- Original Message -----
From: <zephyrus@r...>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 6:31 PM
Subject: [BRHSlist] Re: Challenger Shovelnose Schedule
> --- In BRHSlist@y..., mike.j.talviste@g... wrote:
>
> > http://www.challengerimports.com/Pages/2352.html
>
> Well, that answers the question of the fourth Twin Cities car. It's
> 525, the short coach, which would make the train technically (most of
> the time) 9901. But what a great series of models--the whole
> first-generation shovelnose fleet! :-) :-)
>
> Best regards,
>
> Randy
>
Maybe I didn't make it clear in my earlier post - 525 was added in '35 to
expand 9900. While it had started out saving all the money Ralph Budd had
hoped on the KC-Lincoln run, it rapidly started costing more by requiring a
steam second section to cover demand. The trick was to add the smallest,
lightest possible passenger car to boost occupancy and eliminate the second
section requirement.
The really interesting part of the whole story is that I know of only one
decent unretouched photo of 9900 during the 525 days, and it's in the
strangest of all possible places: the last page of Bernie Corbin's "Steam
Locomotives of the Burlington Route" (July '35, when no other "fourth car"
exists). I can't help wondering how many Q fans have glanced over that
photo and automatically thought "Car 500" . . . .
Marshall
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