Sunshine Special state flowers plate with Texas at 12 o’clock

[peggyrothschild]

My wife found this at an antique mall yesterday in Glendale, Missouri so I went up today to see the condition. No chips or scratches so I bought out the credit card.

I was always told these plates with Texas at the top were used on Sunshine Special T&P and I-GN diners. Anyone seen or heard this as a fact? I’ve had the Missouri version for 35 years but hadn’t had a chance to buy the Texas one until today. I’ll post some better photos later. [attachment=0:1y8fphp7]IMG_3256.JPG[/attachment:1y8fphp7]

[peggyrothschild]

From Bill Pollard
I have been told that the Texas plate originated with the Texas Centennial in 1936 (massive MP magazine coverage of the centennial… need to check if there is any confirmation of that story). Supposedly after the event, T&P always ordered that variety, and indeed some are dated into late 40s. As far as I know the Texas plate never carried a RR backstamp.

[Joseph Berry]

Great find….and an even better price!!

Mrs. Duckworth should get a good finders fee for that……

[benjamintickell53]

After further thought, it seems somewhat unlikely that Texas & Pacific would purchase service plates with Missouri Pacific Lines featured prominently on the front. Even though it was somewhat of a corporate charade, T&P always tried to function with a considerable degree of independence. Usage of the “Texas” service plates on the I-GN is certainly plausible, but it would be helpful to find some T&P dining car interior photos or mention in the T&P employee magazine to actually confirm usage on the T&P.

That said, the predecessor to the steam plate, which was the Sunshine Special service plate, did prominently mention the three roads involved, namely StLIM&S, I&GN and T&P, and it seems likely that these earlier plates were indeed in service on the Sunshine Special from end to end. By the time the steam service plates were first purchased in 1929, perhaps “Missouri Pacific Lines” was seen as all encompassing – including even the T&P, at least for this purpose.

Does anyone have any documentation to either confirm or refute the Texas version of the steam service plate usage on the T&P?

Bill Pollard

[benjamintickell53]

More information continues to gradually surface on MP service plates. Concerning the Texas plates in general. there seems to be a number of plates which were purchased in 1947, but I have also seen one example which was purchased in 1946 or earlier. The Texas plates were produced by rotating the decal on the border of the plate so that Texas was at the top, all state flowers maintained their prior relationship to adjacent flowers, so this was not a new decal, just positioned differently.

The Texas Eagle started in August 1948, and the diesel service plates did not arrive until circa August 1949, per a brief note in the August 1949 MP Magazine. Therefore, were the 1947 “Texas” plates ordered for the Texas Eagle? Anecdotal information continues to suggest that these Texas plates were first ordered for the Texas Centennial in 1936. Does anyone have any information or photos which confirm that possibility? Does anyone have a Texas plate which is backstamped for Texas & Pacific or, more unlikely, front marked under the steam locomotive with Texas & Pacific Railway replacing Missouri Pacific Lines?

One of the china books (McIntyre) states that the Texas plates lacked the outside pinstripes. Possibly so on some batch, but the only ones I have seen do have the outside pinstripes, basically the same as the plates with Missouri on the top. If you have a Texas plate, please take a look at the back and report the date code here (we can decipher the date code if you do not have a Syracuse China reference). Perhaps if we get a larger sample size of these plates, some of these mysteries can be solved.

Bill Pollard

[attachment=1:2h8i6qgh]Texas-1.jpg[/attachment:2h8i6qgh]

[attachment=0:2h8i6qgh]2-codes.jpg[/attachment:2h8i6qgh]

[peggyrothschild]

Bill
My Texas plate has the date code 6-BB so June 1947.

[princessclyne69]

Mine has no date code, and with Missouri at the top. Found it at an antique store somewhere around Johnson City, Texas, probably twenty years ago.

Incidentally, there seems to have been a rash of these on eBay recently, for not-outrageous prices.

RG7

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