ACL coaches on the South Wind in 1951

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In Paul Faulk's book "ACL Color Guide to Frt. & Pass. Equip", on page 25, it shows an ACL coach in the Pensylvania "Modernism" colors, and the caption indicates that the time frame is 1950. My question is would the South Wind still be in this paint scheme by late 1951, or had it already been phased out ? If it has not been phased out by late 1951, would the South Wind be color coordinated on a regular basis, or would it be, by then, a mixture of Tuscan Red and Stainless Steel and even Purple cars ?

-- V. ROGER DUPONT JR. (VRDUPONT@WEBTV.NET), September 10, 2002

Answers

Response to ACL coaches onthe South Wind in 1951

Larry Goolsby reminded me that the two cars in question 208 and 209 were delivered in 1940. My mistake. The delivery of the post war cars freed up some pre-war cars for service on the South Wind.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), September 10, 2002.

Response to ACL coaches onthe South Wind in 1951

After some thought and some discussion with Larry Goolsby, I think I will amend my previous answer and state that the two ACL coaches were painted into the two tone Loewy paint scheme in 1946-very early 1947 and were probably stripped to stainless steel by 1948.

If stainless steel isnt properly acid etched, then paint does not adhere to it very well. PRR had discovered this rather early and was stripping its painted SS cars by 1948.

Larry points out that he has seen photos of the South Wind in 1948 with unpainted SS cars-and I think I know the photo of which he speaks.

By 1951-definately the train had mixed equipment in mixed paint schemes.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), September 10, 2002.


Response to ACL coaches onthe South Wind in 1951

Unfortunately, by 1951, the South Wind was a mixture of PRR Tuscan Red, Stainless Steel-both PRR and ACL, FEC and Pullman green. The South Wind was an all coach train until 1949 when heavyweight sleepers were added to the consist. These were either PRR Tuscan Red or standard Pullman green. The particular coach was one of the ACL early post war Budd built cars(the cars were built to a prewar design as they had been ordered in 1941 and the war stopped their construction. This coach was painted into the pre war PRR Lowey scheme in the period 1947-48. At that time the South Wind was still all PRR Tuscan and was still a usual 7 car train.

PRR was never as careful as say the IC in maintaining a color coordinated consist. By 1951, PRR was running some of its rebuilt P- 70 heavyweight coaches and lounge observation cars on the South Wind. I have seen letters of complaint to PRR from the ACL for the poor condition of some of the PRR cars assigned to the South Wind and the Champion at that time.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), September 10, 2002.


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