And it should be pointed out that the pre-war cars - including the
articulated sets - all had "beefed up" center sills as a direct
result of the Naperville wreck.
While the pre-ware Budds had parlins, they didn't create the "box"
that was later a Budd trademark. Rather than run end to end from
collision post to post, they didn't quite make it. The result was a
less strong car. While post-war Budds were seen in the compression
tests and doing extremely well in them, you would NEVER have seen a
pre-war car put into that test and come out serviceable.
And ultimately, this class of cars, along with the diners and the
Santa Fe cars that were bought during the same period, were the
impetus of the Pullman antitrust suits. Pullman repeatedly explained
that they feared for their crews safety in Budd-built cars. The
results of the Naperville wreck and the consequences it had on the
dining car crew was evidence that they were correct. NOT that this
was the only reason, or perhaps even the (internally) most important
reason. But given that the early Budd cars didn't meet AAR
standards, there was certainly enough for Pullman to demure.
As a result of the wreck and the Pullman suits, the centersills were
made considerably stronger - something that can still be seen on the
Nebraska Zephyr at the IRM.
And, in terms of correctness, the available coaches are indeed less
than accurate. Aside from the cutouts on one series (made to allow
the brake cylinder to freely follow the truck through curves), the
other cars had shrouded trucks. The diners had the cutouts as
well. And then there is the lack of antennae. And then there are
the cars for the Pershing Zephyr, also pre-war (Hallmark sort of did those).
These are the cars that made the Exposition Flyer semi-unique. The
Pershing car was added in Lincoln, and taken off in Denver, the diner
& coach typically, but not always (depending on the year) continued
to Oakland. During the war years (1942 until at least 1947) these
cars had black roofs applied to lower reflectivity from above.
The coaches were later used frequently on the CZ, amplifying the
consist in the pre-converted 16 section sleeper days - and somewhat
less frequently thereafter. They also saw a lot of service on the
transitional TCZ and the early and late ARZ and KCZ.
At 02:50 PM 9/16/2008, you wrote:
>Tom,
>Although used in Zephyr service the SSS cars found their use to be more on
>the secondary trains rather than the DZ, CZ, or TCZ. Although the pre war
>Budds, were used on all the Zephyrs trains as traffic required.
Bob Webber
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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