Nostalgia & History > UP Battery Car M-01886, 1947

Here is UP (OSL) Battery Car M-01886, on September 29, 1947 at Pocatello, Idaho. Photo by Jack Pfeifer, from the Dean Gray Collection.

The Union Pacific equipment record ledger shows that OSL M-68 was changed to Battery Car M-01886 in March 1947, and that M-01886 was retired in August 1958. OSL motor car M-68 was built in March 1927 by Electro-Motive Corporation.

The equipment record also shows that M-01886 was the last of six battery cars used to transport signal batteries for the signal department from the shop in Pocatello to various lineside locations. But this was the only self-propelled car; the others were all former OSL 17000-series 50-ton steel underframe cars built in 1904 and changed to signal service in 1920-1921. Most were retired just before, or just after, this motor car was changed to signal department service.

Don Strack



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/15 08:31 by donstrack.

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Like the restroom window at the end and all the doors.

Marty Bernard

Interesting to see that the smaller (6-cyl) Winton engines sat crosswise in the cars. 

This was one of the "Jack of all trades" motor cars, with passenger, express and RPO sections.  Santa Fe used one in the latter days of Train 42, the LA to San Bernardino local via Pasadena.  A lot cheaper to run than a locomotive and three cars.
 

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Interesting to see that the smaller (6-cyl) Winton
> engines sat crosswise in the cars. 

Attached is a drawing of C&NW 9902, built in June 1926, showing the side and interior layout. From Keilty's "Interurbans Without Wires," page 116.

Don Strack

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donstrack Wrote:

> Attached is a drawing of C&NW 9902, built in June
> 1926, showing the side and interior layout. From
> Keilty's "Interurbans Without Wires," page 116.

Keilty's Doodlebug Country says CNW 9902 was built with a 6-cylinder Winton model 106A.  What do you make of his description of the engine in OSL M-68?  Pages 176-177 make it sound as though it was built with a 275hp Winton model 120, but that it and two other OSL cars swapped engines with UP cars in 1933 such that M-68 ended up with a 225hp Winton 106A. 

Crosswise mounting makes for an economical use of interior space, but it also looks like it would preclude the cab crew from getting back to the rear portion of the car without a trip to the ground.  The 8-cylinder Winton model 148 engine used in a lot of later EMC doodlebugs was mounted "locomotive style," parallel to the car's centerline and generator toward the cab.  Assuming the caption to the photo on the following page is accurate, the 148 doesn't look all that much bigger than the 106A, but I only count 6 hand holes on that 148:

http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/pages/cutaway-engines-EMD-25TH.htm

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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>
> Keilty's Doodlebug Country says CNW 9902 was built
> with a 6-cylinder Winton model 106A.  What do you
> make of his description of the engine in OSL
> M-68?  Pages 176-177 make it sound as though it
> was built with a 275hp Winton model 120, but that
> it and two other OSL cars swapped engines with UP
> cars in 1933 such that M-68 ended up with a 225hp
> Winton 106A. 

I will have to assume Keilty had the information at hand to make such a statement, since his book is the only source for history of UP motor cars. I've often wondered what happened to Keilty's notes and papers after his passing.

> http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/pages/cutaway-engines-EMD-25TH.htm

That link is for Preston Cook's article uploaded to that site in 2006. The text was updated and published, with lots and lots of photos, in the R&LHS's Railroad History, Fall-Winter 2014, Issue 211. Another source for more of Preston Cook's definative EMC-EMD history is the Articles section at Railway Preservation News. But that feature has not been updated since May 2008, and the links to photos seem to break on a regular basis. About five or six years ago, Preston Cook began publishing his reseach to paper in magazines such as Railfan & Railroad, Railroad History, and Railroad Model Craftsman. My challenge has always been to search out his works, and gather them together. After I asked him for a list of his published works, he said he had never done such a list.

Don Strack