Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: From Patriotism to Weed Control

Bill Gibson had a meticulous nature when it came to supplying his negatives & slides with information. He was very thorough in providing previous car/engine numbers & in cross-referencing with other negatives & slides throughout his collection. As I've noted more than once in past threads; some of his slides literally drip with information. It's amazing how much data can fit (front and/or back) on a 2" square with a standard transparency in the middle of it. For this railfan it has become one of the many joys I routinely experience in the scanning & archiving of his collection.

I can remember from Trains magazine coverage in the early 70's (1972?) seeing this R/W/B paint scheme on a special train that toured the country. Bill called it the "1776 Train" on his slide. As always, I'm open to correction, but if my memory serves this train consisted of an SCL U-36-B, 2 Santa Fe passenger cars & a Frisco Caboose, all painted identically to Bill's shot here. I believe the Santa Fe cars were a baggage-cum-power car and an old heavyweight coach for a display car. The train seemed to be a precursor to the wave of patriotically oriented "bi-centennial" paint schemes that exploded in the RR industry in '74 & '75 and lasted through the end of the nation's 200th birthday in 1976. Some of these bi-centennial paint jobs actually lasted into the late 70's & early 80's. It was a joyful time to be an active railfan photographer.

I never saw that R/W/B train in person, but I did see some of Santa Fe's weed sprayer cars. In my 9 years with Santa Fe I even had a couple of work-train experiences with weed sprayers; just not this 199207. I don't know the final disposition of the 133/199207 carbody, bit I'm certain there is one TO member who's information system would have made Bill envious. He might be able to provide us the final details. Evan?...

1. AT&SF baggage car 133 in "1776 Train" livery in Argentine, KS on October 25, 1973.

2. Same carbody now as AT&SF 199207 weed sprayer in Emporia, KS on February 8, 1982.
(2 photos by William A. Gibson Sr.)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/22 22:09 by santafe199.

---

---

>> Bill called it the "1776 Train" on his slide>>

Was the 133 used on the Preamble Express that went around the country in advance of the Freedom Train? I think they used an E unit (UP 951??) in certain parts of the country.

Tiz a shame passenger cars get busted down to "other duties as assigned", as into MofW service. Like the time I showed up to work one day and there was BNSF's geometry train with ex-ATSF biz car "Atchison" working as a lowly support car. Blasphemy.
Dave in Msla

Edit... the 1776 Train and Preamble Express were two different trains??



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/13 07:47 by monaddave.

Pre Amble Express was pulled by a UP E-9 951 I believe, along with some Lancaster & Chester cars, which I think were ex Reading cars. Train was on the Santa Fe in Sept 74 as I took some slides of it at Newton. Toured the country and I think the UP E-9 was with most of the way.

the "1776" train was indeed a separate train from the Preamble Express ( which was the advance train for the American Freedom Train )

now, this red/white/blue car has led an interesting and still active life......
*built by Pullman-Standard and finished by Topeka Shops in 1965 as baggage 3922
*rebuilt 1970 into the 133 ( one of ATSF's steam generator cars )
*and it remained so as repainted and pictured above at Argentine
*rebuilt 1982 to weed sprayer car 199207
*rebuilt Dec.1990 to geometry support car 86
*and still serving in that capacity today as BNSF 86

santafe199 Wrote:

> I can remember from Trains magazine coverage in
> the early 70's (1972?) seeing this R/W/B paint
> scheme on a special train that toured the country.

Yes, the "Spirit of '76" train ran in late 1972. It was organized by SCL, Frisco, and Santa Fe and toured between Richmond, CA and Richmond, VA. The train consisted of SCL U36B 1776, Santa Fe steam generator car 133, Santa Fe display car 5005, and SLSF caboose 1776. See:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,199524
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1193528
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,733817
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=70716
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=98026&nseq=2

Some Con Sweet photos of the subsequent Santa Fe bicentennial display train are here:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1636303

The_Chief_Way laid out the long and varied career of the 133 better than I could. Santa Fe definitely got its money's worth out of that car.

Thanks Chief, Evan, you guys are champs!

Lance

Anyone else have the 1776 in HO scale, back in the day? I still have the engine...

The 139 was used on the Dodge City, Ford and Bucklin line out of Dodge City, Ks for a number of years. How many other steam generator cars were there?

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:

> The 139 was used on the Dodge City, Ford and
> Bucklin line out of Dodge City, Ks for a number of
> years. How many other steam generator cars were
> there?

Santa Fe built a total of 11 steam generator cars from baggages. The 9005 (later 130) was built in 1962, and 131-140 were done in 1970, just a year before Amtrak. Three of the cars went to Auto Train in 1971, and the balance were cast off or rebuilt into other things over the next couple of decades.

IIRC, the 199207 was sold to a weed spray contractor. I remember seeing it in use the following year, after that they were using hi-rail trucks for spraying.

Fred in Wichita

ATSF93 Wrote:

> IIRC, the 199207 was sold to a weed spray
> contractor. I remember seeing it in use the
> following year, after that they were using hi-rail
> trucks for spraying.

Santa Fe had three spray cars built from semi-lightweight baggages, 199206-199208. The 199208 had a rear deck and was easily identifiable, but 199206 and 199207 were quite similar. I compared pictures of those two cars to a photo of freshly-converted car 86 a few months back, and there were enough detail differences that I managed to convince myself that 86 really was the former 199207. Could it have been 199206 that you saw working for the contractor?

What I found in my notes.

Apr 3, 1988; Derby, Ks; ATSF 199207
Sept 20, 1991; Mulvane, Ks; HABX 208 which was probably the 199208

I will look for slides, but no guarantees.

Fred

The August 1991 Pacific RailNews p.40 reports that Santa Fe sold 199206 and 199208 to Habco (a vegetation control contractor) along with 30 weed chemical tank cars. The sprayers became HABX 206 and 208.

Here is a shot of those bicentennial cars in Topeka. I believe it was after they had already done the tour @ 1977.

---