All-
This car is what was termed a “Boarders” car. I don’t know if any were purpose-built new but I imagine most were converted passenger cars. There were earlier RPOs, baggages, and other truss rod passenger cars that received this style of sill reinforcement.
These cars were used for housing track, bridge gang, wrecker and other workers. It was not unusual for some work cars to be equipped with a cupola and there are a number of such cars that likely served as the work train conductor’s waycar.
I don’t think any of these were “stretched” waycars as they were always in demand as such…more likely obsolete cars downgraded to company service.
Charlie Vlk
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> On Behalf Of Rupert Gamlen
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2021 5:43 PM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] 1897 Chalco incident
Louis
I think this is 209365, the subject of an earlier group discussion. Charlie Vlk noted that it was 45’ long and weighed 60,000 lbs, surviving until scrapped in 1949. He also commented on the windows, doors and cupola as being similar to those on 28’ waycars, so perhaps this car was a waycar that had been stretched.
If this was a stretched waycar to provide drover accommodation, the 1949 scrapping date may relate to the acquisition of Pullman tourist cars in late 1947, some of which were converted to drover cars towards the end of 1948. Bulletin 25 has details of these cars on page 111.
Charlie - I've attached an image from the BRHS Flickr Gallery showing an "elongated" way car in use on a wreck train in 1940 near Princeton, IL:
Could this car have been originally constructed for use as a dover's car? Somewhere else in the Flickr Gallery there's another image of a near-identical car, except it does not have a cupola.
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