Reply To: Valley Eagle Stateroom Coaches 850-855

[Bill Pollard]

Here are a couple of scans from the August 1948 Railway Age which describes the deluxe stateroom coaches in some detail, but with no mention of the planned usage for the stateroom. It does appear that there was no upper berth, thus no overnight usage contemplated which would have infringed on the uniform Pullman contract, which specified that Pullman had exclusive right to provide overnight sleeper accommodations.

The diagram mentions that the end door had two round windows in it, one at sitting level and one at standing level. On some of those cars, the double window doors survived as long as the car, although I believe that all end windows were plated over by the time I saw the cars in the mid-1960s.

This article does mention that two cars with a grill coach spliced between would be used on a new (unspecified) daylight streamliner, thus eliminating the need to turn the train.

Bill Pollard