Railroaders' Nostalgia > Were Rider Coaches Heated

Back when mail trains were run on passenger schedules during the '60s and '70s and pulled by passenger locomotives,
would the rider coach have been steam heated?
Andy

During steam, direct steam pressure from the locomotive of appx 200 psi. was sent back.  With diesels, they had steam generators and they supplied the steam, again 200 lbs. Some roads built a "Steam Ginny" in an old "B" unit or short baggage car, that had a few steam generators and big water tanks. The steam was used in a number of ways:

To heat water, heat kitchen hot tables, heat the cars and steam ejection to cool them.  You always had to crack open the rear valve just a bit on the last car to keep it moving through the cars.

Some express box cars were equipped with steam & signal lines so they could be hauled on the head end.


Nudge

This discussion on the Nostalgia/History board from a few days ago speaks to this question, near the bottom of the thread:

Coast Mail Discussion

The answer seems to be "until the steam line was disconnected" during enroute switching, at least in the Summer.

Some coaches were also equipped with self oil or coal heaters for this type of service.

I watched Milwaukee 56 the Fast Mail a lot during the late 60's, and the steam lines were only connected as far as the last coach.  The storage cars, boxcars, reefers, and FlexiVans that were handled behind the coaches were equipped with steam lines, but they were not connected.  The rear car was always a 1350 series baggage-rider coach.  This car had a stove installed to keep the flagman warm.   BSB  

As a kid, I used to ride the MILW mail/locals and BSB is absolutely correct.

Don't forget RPOs were steam heated too.

It was coach heat, but during the Summer, the Santa Fe would drop a large ice block or two from an Ice Plant in aisle with fans blowing over them (I assume powered by axle-belt driven generator) to help cool the rider coaches.  Probably helped but wasn't the most economic air conditioining around.
 

The original Pullman Air Conditioning System used ice bunkers beneath the floor of railcars.
The melting ice produced chilled water which was pumped up into a radiator like device
with a fan blowing through it.  The ductwork in many cases was in a bubble on the side
of the clerestory.  It worked very well, although it was labor intensive.  It is from the
Pullman A/C system that we get the idea of a ten-ton a/c system.  A ten-ton system
had the equivalent of 120,000 btus per hour.  It took ten tons of real ice to produce
the equivalent cooling.  Oh, yeah, the addition of salt to the ice bunkers speeded up
the cooling process, although the salt brought havoc to the bunkers, the center sills,
and side sills due to corrosion.

On the coast mail trains 90 and 91, the steam lines were not hooked up from LA, as there were cars of mail and express to set out at Oxnard and Ventura ( usually they were 40 foot grey passenger boxcars).  There was also a mail storage car added at Santa Barbara just ahead of the rider coach.  This car was apparently for the huge volume of mail from Columbia Records operation at Santa Barbara.  Then, another car was picked up at Salinas going to Oakland, and during the summer express reefers of strawberries and artichokes were added at Watsonville most days.  With the very mild climate along the Coast there was little need for steam except to make coffee in the RPO car.  If the steam was not connected, the post office employees used cans of alcohol to heat their coffee.  They made a fine cup of coffee indeed!
As a side note, trainmen who coupled steam hoses at Santa Barbara could claim an hours extra pay for doing so.  This privilege was jealously guarded and was the source of endless claims and grievances as frankly, no one in the timekeeping office had ever heard of such a precedent.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/15 00:58 by aronco.

>  If the steam was not connected, the post office employees used cans of alcohol to heat their coffee.  They made a fine cup of coffee indeed!

I should think so because they were burning methanol in those heaters, and methanol is a neurotoxin.

>As a side note, trainmen who coupled steam hoses at Santa Barbara could claim an hours extra pay for doing so. 

Claimed account working a different craft. Steam lines were carman's work, and there had probably been carmen at SB at one time. When jobs are abolished in one craft and another assumes the duties (making up steam lines for example), that other craft gets a "bonus" when they are instructed to do that work, hence that extra "hour's pay", although brakemen were paid by the mile, not the hour.

>This privilege was jealously guarded and was the source of endless claims and grievances as frankly, no one in the timekeeping office had ever heard of such a precedent.

The only reason for the grievances is the Company's pursuing the don't-pay-it-and-they'll-eventually-give-up line of thinking. BTD this sort of thing lots of times.