MP sleeper service after 12-31-1968 ???

[Bill Pollard]

The Spring 1983 issue of the Eagle contains a lengthy article about MP streamlined passenger cars as well as a roster of equipment. In that article, author Joel Boucher stated that:

“…in the waning days of MP passenger service, the MP returned to sleeping car service. This situation developed because the railroad was paying sleeping car porters not to work. A sleeper was placed on what had been the skeleton of the Texas Eagle, porters returned to work, and officials used the sleepers between St. Louis and Dallas/Fort Worth.”

Can anyone provide comments about this quote? Pullman service on the MP ended on December 31, 1968. Sleeping car porters were the employees of the Pullman Company, and while MP might have had some liability when these employees were laid off, its difficult to imagine that expenditure being sufficient motivation to restore sleeper service. I do not recall any regular operation of a sleeper on the Texas Eagle in 1969 after the cessation of Pullman operations, but of course I didn’t observe every train and do not have consists from 1969. Documentation to confirm or refute this later operation of sleeping cars would be appreciated. If it in fact operated, when did it operate? Service to Ft. Worth ended in May 1969, so the most likely period would have been sometime in the first five months of 1969.

Also, this same issue of the Eagle has a MP “builder” photo of RPO 387 when it was released by Sedalia in 1966. Does anyone have an original print that could be scanned at high resolution?

Bill Pollard

[attachment=0:3a6nuq0z]387-Eagle-article-1983.jpg[/attachment:3a6nuq0z]

[Author]

Posts