Thanks again to everyone who helped identify that baggage car a couple
months ago. In my ongoing search for "authentic" cars to supplement my
pathetic HO collection of pre-streamlined Burlington passenger equipment,
I've become interested in those round-roofed wooden express reefers. Such
cars appear in many photos of Burlington passenger trains and yards from
about the 1920s through the 1950s. A few examples:
1) Jones and Coleman, STERLING, COLORADO, p. 281 (Perry photo, 1930 or '32)
Train 304 north of Sterling
2) Jones and Coleman, STERLING, COLORADO, p. 162 (Coleman photo, n.d.),
Sterling yard, close-up end view of car.
3) Jones, DENVER & NEW ORLEANS, p. 308 (Andrews, 1948), Pueblo yard, side
view of car in the middle distance.
4) Spoor CB&Q IN COLOR V. 1, p. 63 (Gleason, 1953) Train 19, showing
express reefer sandwiched in between two "Troop Kitchen" Cars (TKCs still
have their windows in!).
5) Holck, CB&Q COLOR PICTORIAL V. 1, p. 78 (Olmstead, 1958) in unidentified
passenger train behind an E8 and 2 E7s leaving Chicago's Union Station.
6) Holck, CB&Q COLOR PICTORIAL V. 1, p. 38 (Kerrigan, 1948) 2 cars of
slightly different design (different height and fascia) heading up a long
(unidentified) passenger train behind engine 5612.
7) Spoor CB&Q COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT AND PASSENGER EQUIPMENT, p. 15
(Wagner, 1963) end of a car just visible coupled to "troop kitchen" BE-1
#8800 in the Denver coach yard.
I've never seen any discussion of these cars in books or Bulletins (maybe
they're treated in one of the OPs I've missed). That surprises me, since
they'd be an easy way to add some plausible head end equipment to many
passenger trains all over the system during a 30-40 year period. Also,
several models (at least in HO) are available (finely detailed kits from
Funaro and Camerlengo, as well as inexpensive shake-in-the-boxes from
Athearn and MDC-Roundhouse). As a quick, cheap experiment, I bought two MDC
"kits", shook the boxes, and - Presto! - now have a couple of stand-in cars
labled for NP (American Railway Express) and GN (REA), on the assumption
that cars from those roads might have found their way onto the Q more
often. But I'd happily repaint them if I knew what was more appropriate.
Glick's passenger car roster does not mention any such cars, which makes me
wonder whether they were simply "visitors" with no connection whatsoever to
the Q, or whether they still might have been assigned to the Burlington and
had their own distinctive reporting marks, but technically were owned by
ARE or REA. Surely, they are NOT the 900-series "cream cars" built (or
rebuilt) by the Burlington early in the century, since those all were
converted to baggage or non-revenue service before most of the photos above
were taken (Burlington Bulletin #39 has pics of one former cream car used
in track inspection). Also, unlike the REA express reefers, the roofs of
cream cars had beveled ends. Glick's list does include some "milk cars"
(Nos. 949-956), but they are all too short (34'-37') and were also retired
or converted early on.
All the cars in the photos listed above appear to be about 50' long and
painted some darker shade of green (for what it's worth, neither of my MDC
cars is "pullman green." The GN car is olive; the NP car a dark (hunter?)
green). I would assume the prototype cars were owned by Railway Express
Agency. My questions: Were any of these cars specifically assigned to the
CB&Q or its subsidiaries? And how were they painted, lettered, and
numbered? Almost all the photos mentioned above are at oblique angles, so
it's hard to see any lettering at all. But wherever it is discernible, the
lettering seems much more modest and minimal than on the MDC cars, both of
which have colorful heralds, etc. Photo #5 above shows what appears to be
yellow or "gold" lettering on the car end, but no other obvious markings.
Photo #3 (side view), shows just data near bottom left side of the car, but
again, no other lettering. And photo #2, which is a clear close-up of a car
end, shows either no lettering, very faded lettering, or lettering which
has been painted over.
Any insights (either historical information or pointers on
painting/lettering/numbering) would be greatly appreciated.
Jonathan
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