Western Railroad Discussion > Iowa Northern Business Car

A recent acquisition by the Iowa Northern is business car "Shell Rock River", photographed in Waterloo (IA) on 10/6/22.  Jeff Van Cleve photo, my collection.  Anyone have a heritage on this car?  The paint job makes me suspect that it's a former CSX car.

mike woodruff
spokane

---

With that extra deep rear platform, and the white lighting dome over the platform, it sure looks like ex-Wabash Helena Modjeska (built 1927), which ran regularly (also under the name City of Lafayette after a 19545 renaming) on Wabash trains between Chicago and Detroit and St. Louis in the heavyweight era, and even into the streamlined era. More research to be done, but those are two distinctive almost-dead-giveaway spotting features of the car, and features which are not particularly common in Pullman-built designs. The blue Wabash-like paint would be an additional very nice homage to the car's heritage, if it is indeed that car.

If it is that car, it was originally named for a famed Polish-American actress-singer of the late 1800s - early 1900s, and the mother of the famed bridge engineer, Ralph Modjeski. He designed a number of notable through-truss railroad bridges, including the powerful Thebes Bridge over the Mississippi near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the Harahan Bridge at Memphis, both still in heavy daily service. The engineering firm he co-founded, Modjeski & Masters, is still very prominent in the bridge design field today, and is particularly noted for its expertise in major navigable waterway crossings, and in movable span bridges.

MC



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/22 12:54 by ironmtn.

i think it was a new orleans belt car most recently, they have another one for sale and a another not rebuilt i think, wanted a lot for it

here is the pic of the running mate still for sale listed at close to 700k

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/22 14:21 by dan.

---

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i think it was a new orleans belt car most
> recently, they have another one for sale and a
> another not rebuilt i think, wanted a lot for it

If it is the former Helena Modjeska / City of Lafayette, then yes, it was recently a New Orleans Public Belt car.

Some information on the car under that name, and some Pullman "cousins", also previously owned by the Wabash and later the NOPB, and in parlor-observation service from Detroit and Chicago to St. Louis: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30963&view=previous

If the Shell Rock River is not the former Helena Modjeska / City of Lafayette. then it could be one of the other "cousins" mentioned in the post at the link. I believe that at least a few of those ex-Wabash parlor-observation cars also had the extra-deep rear platform, and the light dome over the platform, similar to the Helena Modjeska / City of Lafayette. Cars with those features were especially desirable for political campaign whistle-stop trains. There was plenty of room on that deep rear platform for a podium, and for a couple of rows of politicians to stand behind the featured candidate -- and be seen and photographed. I've heard stories a number of times that the Wabash made some nice extra cash leasing those cars out during campaign seasons after they had left the Pullman pool, and were in Wabash ownership and / or regular service.

One of those "cousins", former WAB City of Wabash (nee Pullman Embassy) was for some years fairly familiar around the Midwest as the Keokuk Junction Railway's Chief Keokuck. I had a memorable trip on the Chief on an all-day tour-of-the-line excursion of almost the entire mainline route of the Chicago & Illinois Midland from Taylorville, Ill. to Pekin, Ill. (near Peoria) and return. The car was just beautiful inside, with 1930's-era period furnishings (as two rows of non-rotating facing parlor seats), and restored Pullman details such as the wall sconces and painted stencils near the ceilings.

MC



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/22 13:47 by ironmtn.

Thanks, everyone.  The photos at the rypn.org link indicate that this must be the former NOPB "Louisiana"/KJRY "Chief Keokuk"/WAB "City of Wabash"/Pullman "Embassy".  The roofline of the NOPB "City of New Orleans"/WAB "City of Lafayette"/Pullman "Helena Modjeska" doesn't match.  Much obliged.

mike woodruff
spokane

Any idea where the Cheif Keokuck is?

Posted from iPhone