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Bill, I wondered about the Ft. Worth to El Paso line as well. Perhaps the T&P ran the Dome to New Orleans but missed inclusion the Official Guide. Some large library may have a collection of them, but it’s doubtful. Perhaps the NMRA library in Chattanooga?
I used to ride the Texas Eagle from St Louis to LR in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The summer was nice, but in December there was just a brief bit of twilight before the darkness. However, I always enjoyed seeing all the small towns arrayed with Christmas decorations. Not surprisingly, the trips in December seemed to take twice as long as the trips in June.
Ha – of course I found the others after I post the message!!
March 1963 ColoEagle 11/12 dome cars, MoRiver Eagle 16/17 no domes, Texas Eagle 21/22 dome between Ft Worth and El Paso, 1/2 dome St Louis – San Antonio. Louisiana Eagle does not a dome.
December 1964 (post T&P merger) Texas Eagle Dome St Louis – San Antonio, New Orleans – El Paso,
Mo River Eagle 17/16 dome cars St Louis – Omaha No Colorado EagleMarch 1966 Texas Eagle Domes St Louis – San Antonio, New Orleans – Ft Worth, MoRiver Eagle dome St Louis -Kansas City (Omaha connection was discontinued 9/6/65)
Dick
Bill –
The latest Guides I have are December 1961 and April 1962. Both still show dome cars on 1/2 (Ft Worth) and 21/22 (San Antonio) south of Texarkana.
Dome cars are shown on Colorado Eagle (11/12), but not on Missouri River Eagle. And not on service to Louisiana.
I did find a note in my passenger service changes data base that on April 23, 1963 MP stopped turning the dome car in Ft Worth. I know the dome seta didn’t rotate, but surely wouldn’t that mean they turned the coach seats?
Dick
Pat –
The last car in the group is a good representation of the 55-ton open hoppers built for MoPac by ACF in the series 58750-59749. There are some variances in hand brakes, but the car is generally accurate. These cars had a long service life on the MoPac, many receiving freight car red paint and 4- (or 5-) foot emblems in the early sixties.Not sure about the other cars.
October 14, 2015 at 4:10 am in reply to: Updating the Kadee 40′ Route of the Eagles boxcar to the 1970’s #7335Very nice!
October 3, 2015 at 3:01 pm in reply to: 1,000 Texas Railroad Negatives from SMU’s DeGolyer Library are available online #7307My search for “Missouri Pacific” yeilded about 150 images from the DeGolyer collection. Hope SMU continues to add images.
The 70′ lightweight mail car was also instantly recognizable. It’s very easy to spot those cars in a train consist whether on the MoPac or a connecting road. You don’t need to see the letterboard to know it’s a MoPac car.
Since the Bagnell Branch is being “imagineered” to 1979, you might want to consider adding new industries that developed between 1955 and 1979. A likely choice would be frozen poultry, similar to the Tyson plant in Searcy, AR. Such a plant at, say, Russelville would create a need for the branch’s existence and the continued RI interchange at Eldon. ART reefers could be sent to Jeff City for cleaning and delivery to the on-line plant. Then you would have a need for several 70 ton ART cars
Turning “Eagle Blue” with envy. Very nice!!
This is a great book on MoPac steam (and a little bit on diesels). Highly recommended to anyone who does not have a copy.
MoPac built these cars not only to replace aging heavyweight mail storage cars, but to take advantage of Post Office contracts that paid the railroads by the linear-foot of mail hauled, not weight or volume. Hence, these cars with 8-foot interior height earned as much revenue as a car with a 10-foot interior (such as the ACF “economy” storage cars). The cars were also built by MoPac forces and were less expensive than cars from ACF or Pullman-Standard. Had not the Post Office pulled mail contracts from the railroads in 1968, this type of car may have seen wider use by other railroads.
Charlie, I have T&P 251600-252099 as well.
Well, there goes another night reading timetables in bed!
Great information.
David,
All four photos are from Palestine, TX. As such, the photos are on the MoPac, not T&P.
MoPac was all diesel in Texas by 1953 and the Texas Eagle started operation in late 1948, so the photos date 1948-1953
Nice project, Charlie! The paint patch is visible, but I understand your frustration as to the patch blending to the body color. Dullcote does hide minor color variations. Your experience emphasizes that contrast may need to be exaggerated on HO scale models.
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