Nostalgia & History > SP business car Sunset -- March 79

The Sunset is on the business car track at the Amtrak (ex-SP) station in Houston.
It was built by P-S in 1955.
Gary

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Nice pics!

Looks like that's a six-axle car?  And "recently" built office car, too.

Not commonly known, but it is believed that the Sunset has an all-stainless steel superstructure, one of the few cars so built by Pullman Standard.  Only other PS stainless cars were some coaches and coach lounges built for the Katy in 1954 and 1955.

I also think the the "State" series of sleeper lounges for New Haven were all stainless.
"Pine Tree State", for example, is at North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer and still looking good.
Tony

tonymarchiando Wrote:
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> I also think the the "State" series of sleeper
> lounges for New Haven were all stainless.
> "Pine Tree State", for example, is at North
> Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer and
> still looking good.
> Tony

They were not.  They had the so-called "stainless over stainless" construction, which meant that the car had the usual Cor-Ten steel superstructure framework, with flat stainless steel sheets welded over the framework instead of Cor-Ten sheet steel.  The fluting was applied over these stainless sheets, so when water leaked behind the fluting, the stainless side sheets would not rust away over time like the earlier PS cars did.  It was a big improvement, but not equivalent to an all-stainless carbody similar to what Budd produced. 

The Seaboard Sun Lounge cars are also commonly thought to be all-stainless but they are not.  Just "stainless fluting over stainless side sheets".  Same old rusty steel side sills on those cars.

Also note that even on the so-called "All Stainless" PS cars built for the Katy, certain components such as the collision posts were still steel, not stainless.

How about the heavyweight car with Amtrak colors coupled to the obs end of the Sunset?  Anyone have any ideas what that could be?

 Not only does it 'look like' a six axle  but it sure is too.

johnbresnahan10 Wrote:
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> How about the heavyweight car with Amtrak colors
> coupled to the obs end of the Sunset?  Anyone
> have any ideas what that could be?

just another SP car that hadn't been repainted after the early seventies amtrak edict that all pv' s be red white and blue

The car coupled to SP 150, Sunset, is SP 140, Stanford (see page 257 in the book "Southern Pacific Official Cars").

Jeff Cauthen

The carbody of SP 150, Sunset, was almost entirely built of stainless steel.  However, the underframe was high strength low alloy steel.

Jeff Cauthen

johnbresnahan10 Wrote:
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> How about the heavyweight car with Amtrak colors
> coupled to the obs end of the Sunset?  Anyone
> have any ideas what that could be?

I haven't found pictures - yet - that I took of those cars.
They may have been cars that showed up in Houston on a regular basis and I had already taken pictures of them.
Gary

Looks like an Officer Special parked at Houston

Wasn't SP Sunset also 89' long in overall length?

SP 150, Sunset, was 87' 6" coupled.  It was 85' 4" over collision posts.

Jeff Cauthen

I believe the Sante Fe and the Topeka, twin business cars built by Budd in 1957, were 89' long. 

You believe wrong.  Santa Fe and Topeka were each 87' 6" coupled.  

Jeff Cauthen