Nostalgia & History > Good Cheer end

What ever happened to the old KCS car the Good Cheer? At the time of this photo at Houston Union Station in 1969, it was under the ownership of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. I understand they have moved to Tomball, TX but the car does not appear on their equipment roster. I am assuming that the various hurricanes of the past just wiped it out. Or has it been salvaged?

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The car is still around, and as far as I know is still owned by the Gulf Coast group. However, maybe 20 years ago, the group started the Amtrak "40 year" rebuild on the car. They took it all apart, and realized the car - being a mostly aluminum superstructure and underframe - had substantial corrosion issues. I understand the car has pretty much been sitting in pieces since then.

Within the last year or two, however, I understand the car was moved on a flatcar to the Austin Steam train group and the car may be put back together for service on that train as it would not have to be Amtrak Certified at that point.

Rode many a mile around the country in this car during the 70's and 80's (I usually worked the bar).
It's too bad the shape it is in today.
Here is a shot (posted last year) of it in better days at LA Union Station (on a trip from Houston-San Diego)- October 1989.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/18 10:13 by gcm.

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Apparently the Good Cheer's end is dubious or not.

Somewhar in my hot old attic I have an article from Parade magazine circa 1968 that has a picture of a very young Jack Pearson working the bar AND fixing the AC. I do not know how well he could tend bar, but he sure could fix an AC. So the car is in Austin now?

Hou74-76 Wrote:
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>
> Somewhar in my hot old attic I have an article
> from Parade magazine circa 1968 that has a picture
> of a very young Jack Pearson working the bar AND
> fixing the AC. I do not know how well he could
> tend bar, but he sure could fix an AC.

Fortunately, Jack is still with us, living in Houston. A few years ago, Jack stepped off the curb and bought a couple of passenger cars to rebuild for service with the Austin Steam Train. He later got cold feet and sold one, but still has the other, a former MP Budd flat-sided ("flatting" instead of fluting) diner that was re-patriated from 40-plus years in Mexico.

Thanks for mentioning the Missouri Pacific Budd Diner-Lounge cars (later Diner-coaches) with slab sides. It is great to hear one is still intact in Texas.

There was one of these cars at the Kansas City Railroad Museum (Smoky Hill) in the 1970s and 1980s (?) until sold by the group to a railcar speculator. Is perhaps the car in Texas the one that never went to Mexico?

The reason I say that is that so many cars went to Mexico only to never come back.

Just wondering?

BuddPullman Wrote:
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> There was one of these cars at the Kansas City
> Railroad Museum (Smoky Hill) in the 1970s and
> 1980s (?) until sold by the group to a railcar
> speculator. Is perhaps the car in Texas the one
> that never went to Mexico?


The 582 if I remember right. They sold that car to Kasten who resold it to me and I moved it out of Belton. I played with it for a couple of years and it went back to Les in a trade for another Dome or maybe the 2 Pride of Texas cars I bought. I don't remember that was a long time ago. I lost track of it after that, but a couple years ago I heard it's still around.

Edit - I reread the post and realized it was Mike Gresham from the Austin Steam Train telling me the 582 was down there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/18 10:42 by EmpireBuilder.

Thanks Dave. Good to hear it survived.

BuddPullman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for mentioning the Missouri Pacific Budd
> Diner-Lounge cars (later Diner-coaches) with slab
> sides. It is great to hear one is still intact in
> Texas.
>
> There was one of these cars at the Kansas City
> Railroad Museum (Smoky Hill) in the 1970s and
> 1980s (?) until sold by the group to a railcar
> speculator. Is perhaps the car in Texas the one
> that never went to Mexico?
>
> The reason I say that is that so many cars went to
> Mexico only to never come back.
>
> Just wondering?

The ex-MP 582 is indeed in Austin now, after having bounced around to several private owners over the last 20+ years with no work being done to the car whatsoever. It was purchased by Burt Dockall a coupla years ago from a guy in TX (though the car was still in the St. Louis area) and Burt is slowly working on it at Austin. But the car I referenced as owned by Jack Pearson is indeed a very, very unusual case of a former US car having been repatriated from Mexico. It is the former MP 41, ex IGN 846. So ironically, these 2 sister cars have been re-united in Austin TX, roughly 45 years since being sold by the MP circa 1970.