On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:26:22 -0000, thommack wrote
> Has anyone had experience building the Cannonball Car Shops Express
> cars/WW II troop cars (kit 9704)? I model 1967/68 and was thinking
> of building some. Were they still in common use in 67/68 as express
> cars?
>
> Also, could someone help me out as to how/when these cars were used?
> Would a train with an E8 and several of these cars be an appropriate
> train for my era (I seem to remember seeing a picture of a train
> like the one I described in a book)? Were they scheduled trains or
> ran as needed? Or would the express cars just be spliced in on a
> regular scheduled passenger train?
>
> BTW, my layout is based on the line from Chicago to the Twin Cities
> (La Crosse area).
>
> Tom Mack
Tom -
I can't help you on construction hints, since I havcen't seen one of the
kits - As far as the prototypes were concerned, the Q bought 300 of the 400
troop kitchen cars through a 1947 auction of war surplus equipment & rebuilt
them as express storage cars (which resulted in the release of all but 6 of
the 40' and 50' box cars which *had* been reserved for head-end duties back
to freight service -
In service, the "jeeps" (as they were nicknamed) operated just like any other
mail storage or express car - almost exclusively at the head end of
secvondary passenger trains or in dedicated mail trains. I don't have
personal memories of your line, but in Mt. Pleasant and later in Burlington
(1950s/60s), I'd see jeeps ahead of the Nebraska Zephyr, on the "Night Mail"
or among the baggage RPO mix that made up the bulk of the Zephyr Rocket in
its waning days. With the decline of express traffic and the removal of mail
to the airlines, the jeeps went away with the passenger trains.
Marshall Thayer
Mt. Pleasant, IA
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