I’ve done a fair bit of research on the Sunbeam, but I’ve been unable to find a good photo or description of the head-end car(s) that were, or might have been, used, especially in the post-war years. Since this Dallas-Houston-Dallas service was a “day train”, I feel they must have used the SP Overnight express box cars, but can’t confirm that. Anyone help me out here?
If the answer is some version of Yes, how would they have been painted? Silver? Black? Daylight Red&Orange-I’ve never seen that on these cars.
Thanks for any insights.
Mike
Hello Mike,
The “Sunbeam” was really an evening train, not a day train. It left Houston and Dallas late in the afternoon and arrived at the opposite end of its run in time for bed the same night. The day trains on the same route were the “Hustlers.” The “Hustlers” used the same passenger equipment but carried more head end traffic and did more local work than the “Sunbeams.” Offhand I can’t recall seeing any photos showing “Overnight” merchandise cars on either train, but I can’t say I’ve really studied them.
So long,
Andy
Thank you Andy. When I used the term ‘day train’ I knew that wasn’t quite right, but couildn’t figure out a better term. Evening train seems to be a more accurate way to put it. The limited number of photos I’ve seen always seem to feature the beautiful P-14s and what little is visible beyond the Vandy tender does not seem to include head-end revenue cars.
I’m fortunate to have a Hallmark P-14 and am going to convert to DCC, with sound if possible. I don’t know if the locomotive has space for a sound decoder, but I doubt it. Was thinking of not going into the tender for the speaker/decoder, but putting it in a head-end car. Not sure where to go from here.
Mike
The Overnight cars were in captive service between Los Angeles and San Francisco, I doubt the few TTG gray scheme express boxcars strayed from the Pacific lines, but anything is possible, another possibility is they are REA express cars or Pacific Fruit Express reefers in olive green.
Dave