Hi good people.
I was searching for a horse express car to add to the head end cars of my passenger equipment. This got me wondering what other railroads offered horse and Scenery express service? How far did they roam? I know the scenery cars went country wide, but did the horse cars to?
Pete.
I would think the horse cars could go pretty much anywhere, but I don’t know how often they would have been used. I believe they were used to move like race horses going to a race, or horse going to another state for stud. “Normal” horses, like horses used in logging, would have just been moved in stock cars.
you need to join prrpro and prr group on io. one member just built a horse car and the prr car is at strasburg. where it ran can be asked but i assume it was mosty east coast tracks. believe me you will get more info then you thought existed
Quite sometime ago, I modified a Rivarossi coach into an express horse car, based on a photo of a CNR protptype…
At the time, I wasn’t bothering much with underbody details, but a quick look a minute ago convinced me that I should go back and at least add some decent brake gear.
To build the model, I simply remove the car’s “steel” sides, then replaced them with Evergreen scribed siding, along with a letterboard at the top and some scratchbuilt doors. I also fabricated a bunch of stirrup steps, using strip brass from Detail Associates.
The lettering was done with dry transfers from C-D-S.
Since that time, I’ve converted quite a few “steel” coaches into “wooden” baggage cars, although I’ve not bothered trying to make a scenery car…some of the real ones had end doors, in order to accommodate oversize items.
I do pay a little more attention to underbody details nowadays…
…but I’m getting to the point where where I have less than a dozen more baggage/postal cars to build…a couple for friends and a few for myself, and especially fruit-baggage cars, which were very common in my area of Southern Ontario. Some will be Rivarossi conversions, while others will be mostly scratchbuilt.
Most were re-done as ventilator cars for use throughout the summer and early fall, then reverted to closed-in types for use in the winter, as baggage cars.
This was originally a Rivarossi diner, but the owner wasn’t in need of one, so I’ve converted it into a somewhat shortened baggage car…
I think Southern Pacific had 5 of the heavyweight 70 ft. 3 door horse cars. A nice photo of one (page 103) is in the book “Southern Pacific’s Scenic Coast Line”. I’m not sure how many years the SP cars were used for hauling horses, but according to the author of the book, they were eventually converted to regular express baggage service.
I model N scale, and I bought two of the cars (lettered for Southern Pacific) that were made by Micro Trains. I like to add one or two to the head of my heavyweight mail train, right behind the engine.
Jeff
The Santa Fe had a large number of horse express cars over the years, In the era I model, the 1950s, they had 15 in two classes; 1985-1989 (rebuilt from coaches) and 1990-1999 (built as horse express cars). Their main (only?) use was to transport race horses to the race track, mostly in California. Other horse, even if they were somewhat valuable (like rodeo horses), were traveling in stock cars. Brass models of the 1990 class were produced by The Coach Yard and Pecos River Brass. While the TCY model is clearly superior (also in price), the PRB model has opening doors if you want to model (un)loading of horses.
A question for the OP: What do you mean with “scenery express cars”? Open air cars on tourist railroads?
Thanks
JW
I used to be a member of the PRR modeling group when they were on Yahoo groups. Been a member of the PRRT&HS years ago and rejoined this year. I remember the Keystone article about the scenery cars and there were some great pictures of one being loaded in Hollywood.
I’m not sure if the PRR horse cars went past Chicago. I believe they stayed on home rails.
Thank you guys for confirming that horse traffic was as numerous than I would have imagined.
Pete.
Wayne.
Superb modeling as always. Truly a world class master modeler.
Thank you.
JW.
Scenery express cars hauled scenery for the arts, Hollywood, plays, operas, and so on. They were like an express baggage car with one end that could open for long items. Some had huge side doors too.
Pete.
Scenery express cars were baggage cars with end doors designed to accomodate scenery panels from stage plays. The scenery was on panels/flats 6-8 ft wide and 20-30 ft long. There were also backgrounds painted on curtains, which would be as wide as the stage and rolled up. As the theater company would move around the country, the secenery flats and curtains (and props and costumes) would move with them.
This PRR B74b is named for the Texas Jockey Club:
This one for the Minton Hickory Stable in Barbourville, Kentucky.
I understand quite a few well-off “Snowbirds” would winter in Florida and take their trusty steeds along with them presumably requiring the use of a horse car. Of course the PRR had many trains with through equipment from New York-Washington or Chicago and on to Florida.
There was a pretty extensive article in the V.49 #4 Keystone about the Maryland race tracks and the transport of the Equus ferus caballus required for the sport. Plus the many passenger extra trains the races generated.
Bowie_PRR_TTb by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
I checked the CNR book on passenger equipment, and found that they had 7 horse baggage cars, with end doors at one end.
They also had 15 horse express cars, with some later converted to baggage cars, and still later, they were fitted for fruit service.
I was surprised that there were no scenery cars listed.
It’s only a guess, but in addition to racehorses travelling in horse express cars, I wonder if they also carried show horses, especially for the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, which began in 1922 at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto, Ontario. It has been considered the world’s largest indoor agricultural, horticultural and equestrian fair.
Pete, your kind and generous comment is much appreciated
Wayne
Road Apples?
Cheers, Ed
CN also had another type. This one lasted long enough to get repainted with the 1961 logo.
!http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cnr_rolling/168104.jpg
Pete, Dave,
Thanks to both of you for the explanation. I was not aware that such cars did exist. Well, you never get too old to learn something new.
JW
Quite possibly, I guess…the Tragically Hip had a song about that.
In the past, the Niagara Peninsula, here in southern Ontario was a major player for fruit growing: cherries, peaches, pears, plums, berries of all kinds, and a wide assortment of apples. There’s still some of it left, but when the provincial government decided to financially assist farmers to transition to wine-making, many of the orchards and growing fields were ripped out.
In addition to that, the local towns are continuing to expand, gobbling-up prime farmland for overpriced housing. I’d guess that in 20 years, the best of it will be gone.
Wayne
Thanks for posting that…I was completely unaware of such cars…almost looks like another scratchbuilding project for me.
Wayne
I really don’t think that is an express car. More like the ride going to the glue factory. [:-^]
I found a craftsman kit and decal set. Just have to find a pair of trucks that is a reasonable facsimile. The car is a B-74a and need 3D5P2 trucks.
Pete.
As a side. While researching timelines for paint schemes for the horse car. I ran across this.
https://digital.hagley.org/PRR_11870
It said the date created was 1939-10-14 on the Cumberland branch. I thought pay car service was done by 1920. When did pay car service end? This would be a nice kitbash.
Pete.
In the days before movies and TV, theatrical productions moved from city to city on tour, taking all the ‘flats’ for their stage scenery. These flats were tall, thin, and sometimes wide, and were accommodated in ‘baggage’ cars that had completely-opening end doors. Ed will have pictures.
Just read up a bit on horse transport by the Santa Fe in Stephen Sandifer’s book on “Live Stock Operations”. It seems that horses for expositions, fairs, and rodeos were transported in stock cars in freight trains, which were required to stop in certain intervals to allow providing the animals with feed and water. The horse express cars were reserved for race horses (which would nowadays ride by plane). These cars could be (and were) hauled in passenger trains, as they contained all the feed and water the horses needed and did not require extra stops. When not used for horse transport (as horse racing is seasonal), the horse express cars were used as baggage express or mail storage cars.
JW
