Photo of the Week 12/18/2017 – Business Car on Amtrak

[Dennis Faircloth]

An MP business car on the rear of a short Amtrak train. The short Amtrak train leads me to believe this is one of the KC-St Louis trains, and the location with highway parallel looks like Dow, a siding between Sedalia and Jefferson City on the Sedalia Subdivision. That would make this an eastbound train. Dow was the usual meeting point for the two morning trains out of St Louis and KC respectively.

Anyone care to guess location, or identify the business car #?

[attachment=0:3dm5jbqs]Business car on Amtrak B8R6-103.jpg[/attachment:3dm5jbqs]

[benjamintickell53]

Your suggested location of a train on the KC line sounds good to me. As for the business car, obviously not car 1 because of the absence of the silver stripes above and below window, and the end platform railing is closed rather than the open grill work of car 1. Car 8 had three or four larger windows on each side, and these windows appear smaller, so more likely one of the T&P cars, #9 or #10. Car 9 was off the roster by the time of Amtrak, so my guess is car 10.

Bill Pollard

Diagram of car 10 from the MPHS CD of passenger car diagrams – another reason to have that CD for reference.
[attachment=0:1p1pbhyw]10.pdf[/attachment:1p1pbhyw]

[Thomas Hoback]

Looks to me like an eastward train at Dow, just west of Tipton, Mo., which I think you can see in the background. US Highway 50 is to the right.

[clemmie_doris12]

In looking at various photos of business cars with the last MoPac paint scheme, I notice that the eagle/buzzsaw emblem is oriented the same as a locomotive on the sides (pointing forward), and to the right on the rear. This is the standard orientation for this emblem on all equipment except cabooses and freight cars which have no front or rear. Do we know if any business cars without a rear platform (air brake instruction car) got this paint scheme and, if so, how did they orient the eagle on the sides?

Mr. Pollard, I might finally build and use an HO version of a passenger car if someone can suggest a starting point for this or one of the other business cars. I had to tolerate the damn things behind my caboose from time to time.

[amosluettgen1665]

Here is an image of MP #20, apparently in Pueblo, CO. It has the paint scheme Kevin referenced with the Eagle/Buzzsaw, but I do not have an image of the other side.
[attachment=0:3pn2sb6i]s-l1600-3.jpg[/attachment:3pn2sb6i]
…gregg

[clemmie_doris12]

Thanks for the photo of #20, Gregg. It would appear that the same instructions were issued for painting this car as were used on the other business cars. From the position of the eagle, the vestibule end of the car was considered the rear. That makes sense, but I don’t think the orientation of this car on a train was as important as was one with a rear platform.

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