robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

People liked the shot of the lounge section and on other photo sites I had questions about the rest of the car, so here are a bunch of images of the interior and exterior.
I am going from exterior to interior shots (the original is included) working from the rear of the car to the front. But then a shot of Santa on the Observation Platform and two of the types of trucks that would have delivered things to the train back in the early days of its service as a lounge/buffet and then business car.
Because of the hassle I had with the restoration crew, I didn't get everything and many shots were hurried and not as good as I would like. Maybe at one of the events this Holiday Season, the car will be out, and the crew will let me take my time and redo this series the right way.
I will label the pictures individually.
Most were with a Canon 6D and either my 14mm Manual Ultrawide or Canon 24-105L but the one of Santa on the platform was an Olympus super zoom:
C-3020 (only 3 MP), @ 19mm, 1/640 @ f/4.5, ISO-100

Second of two parts because of the number of images.

Double bedroom part of one of the two suites.

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The double bedroom has a chest of drawers

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Short hall past closet and washroom to single bedroom of a suite


A single bedroom, one of the seperate ones, the one on the suite would not have the sink etc.

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An orginal period piece of leather luggage, maintained in like new condition

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Small office, aka Secretary's Room

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View down hall past bedrooms etc to dining room from the front of the car

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Santa arriving at the museum in Dec 2003 for his appearances of the season

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1911 Model T panel delivery truck of the type that might have served Soo 54 when it was a Lounge/Buffet car.

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1923 Model T custom body delivery/cargo truck that might have served Soo 54 as a business car, VIPs took a lot of stuff when they traveled.

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Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Wonderful tour of Car 54!!!!
Thanks, Robert!
Pat

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Really interesting bit of history! Thanks for bringing it to us.

dougbev3 Loc: Pueblo, Colorado

One time in my career as a Railroad Conductor , i was the conductor on a special Amtrak train made up of private cars. Back then I didn't take a camera to work. I wonder if they still run those kind of Special Amtrak trains.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You are welcome.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You are very welcome.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Amtrak still lists the service for private cars, though I believe most of them today belong to "Rail Fan" groups, museums etc. but a few rich train nuts probably still have a few. I could see someone who was rich and had a phobia about flying owning a private car, maybe even with a car carrier, so they don't have to rent everywhere they stop.

The Amtrak site that talks about the private car service states that at certain popular destinations they even have utility service etc. in the rail yard.

https://www.amtrak.com/privately-owned-rail-cars

Our special needs son (30, mentality of a bright 5yo) loves trains and my wife has memberships in several rail groups (yesterday, and today they are at one of the "Live Steamer" parks with the trains where you sit on top of a car - picture of Jon being allowed to be an engineer attached. The guy on the back is the owner of this train, he has kind of taken on Jon as a special assistant and spoils the heck out of him and one or two others. The group that runs the park also have been training Jon to do switching etc.

A couple of times, Jon and his Mom have gone on excursions with fan groups. One in 2012 had a ride on Amtrak up to Portland, Oregon and back. From Portland, they then went on an excursion run up a river valley into Washington and back to Portland. The Excursion was with the Southern Pacific "Daylight" loco #4449.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Pacific_4449

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JustJill Loc: Iowa

I very much enjoyed your series!

dougbev3 Loc: Pueblo, Colorado

That is very special for your son. I am sure he really enjoys it. On one of my trips to Amarillo the engineer mentioned that he would see this same pickup truck at every crossing going into and out of Boise City, Ok. , so I said we should stop at the next crossing and see if they would like a ride through town. It was a Grandmother, grandfather and a 6 yr old boy. The grandfather and the boy were glad to ride a real train . The grandmother just shadowed us till we were out of town. We let the boy blow the whistle and ring the bell. Also under the Engineers direction he moved the throttle. As we completed this short trip, the grandfather told us that it was his 87th birthday and Thank us for making his day special.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I am glad I gave you some enjoyment.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

That is a wonderful story.

When I was in elementary school in Western Kentucky in the 50s the Illinois Central tracks that used to go to a train ferry to Illinois on the Ohio stopped at the edge of town at a large tobacco processing warehouse and grain silo complex for the area farmers. That old line was torn out after it was replaced by a newer line to a bridge built in the late 30s several miles to the east at Paducah, Kentucky. Trains came in with materials for the lumberyard across the tracks on the town side, and in season to the warehouse for tobacco shipments and the grain silos for other crops. Since it was the end of the line, they often sat a while. The engineers would wave, talk to, blow whistles and ring the bell etc. and sometimes let the kids help (watch up close) as they did safety checks and oiling etc. while the people from the warehouse grain complex loaded or unloaded cars etc. In the 30s when the tracks still went to the river that section of track was a very low speed limit area and my Dad remembers they often stopped to gave hunters a ride to or from some of the islands in the backwater swamps along the tracks. It saved a lot of swamp wading and walking on the tracks and trestles for the ones who didn't have a flat bottom skiff to get out there to hunt. If they were coming back into town, the hunters would sometimes "pay" the train crew with a few ducks or geese.

JustJill Loc: Iowa

What a wonderful story. That was was back when they could do that. When our son was young about 40 or 5, my husband and him were big rail fans. My son did get to sit in the engineer's seat of a locomotive too and move the throttle a little bit. It is still my favorite picture of my son. He has a Chicago and Northwestern t-shirt on and a blue hard hat.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

A great memory.

Today in most places if a train crew did something like that they would be in trouble with the company lawyers for possible injuries, the dispatcher for maybe delaying the schedule by a few minutes or the railway police for letting someone into the restricted area close to the tracks.

Out at the railway museum I belong to, we get problems. People walking or standing on the tracks around the museum is a given. But a drunk with his feet propped on one rail and using the other for a pillow with a bottle of beer held on his chest next to the first house in town on the run to the old Santa Fe Depot!!! Kids on their self-made BMX dirt bike park along our right of way into town, jumping the tracks. Every so often the museum brings in a dozer or road grader and levels their BMX track, but after a while the kids make themselves another one.
And the fool who saw the mainline railway inspection crew in their customized pickup with rail wheels and tires on the tracks and tried it with his SUV from the first crossing in town to the museum. Then he had the nerve to complain to the cops we called that our tracks may have damaged his steering and under side of his SUV when he drove onto and off the tracks for his little 1/2 mile run bouncing on the ties.

dougbev3 Loc: Pueblo, Colorado

As the world turns - so does the rules that govern us. I have heard it said and I have repeated it often - We are our own worst enemy .