Nostalgia & History > Some old heavy weights

Some Texas & Pacific heavy weight cars.

---

---

---

Looking at the 1303 (middle photo), it appears to have five battery boxes.  Kind of odd, in that most battery boxes could hold four trays of batteries.  Since each tray had two cells of two volts each, that means a 32volt car would normally have eight trays (two boxes).  64 volt cars would have four boxes. While there is a possibility that what I'm seeing as battery boxes could be ice boxes (ice actuated air conditioning), still, the number of them appears excessive.  Does anyone have more information on this car?

CZ10 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looking at the 1303 (middle photo), it appears to
> have five battery boxes.  Kind of odd, in that
> most battery boxes could hold four trays of
> batteries.  Since each tray had two cells of two
> volts each, that means a 32volt car would normally
> have eight trays (two boxes).  64 volt cars would
> have four boxes. While there is a possibility that
> what I'm seeing as battery boxes could be ice
> boxes (ice actuated air conditioning), still, the
> number of them appears excessive.  Does anyone
> have more information on this car?

In the March '43 ORPTE, T&P 1303 is listed as having ice A/C. It is also a buffet-coach by then. I suspect that WWII needs were responsible for the buffet addition. 

With my scant knowledge of rail cars, I would say those boxes are indeed ice bunkers.  But one has to wonder, it looks like all the ice has melted and the windows have been thrown open to cool or air the car out.  And what about that Sunshine Special lounge car, could that be the car that had a Mexican motif furniture inside with Saltillo tile floors?

A diagram of T&P 1303 does not really answer the battery box/ice box question, but the car was converted from coach to buffet coach by the Marshall (TX) shops in 1939.
Bill Pollard
 

---

Arkrail's diagram is very helpful.  I'm willing to bet that this photo was taken just after the car was outshopped, which would explain the windows being opened and the car NOT cooled down.  Looking at an enlargment of the photo leads me to belive that the boxes are indeed ice bunkers for the air conditioning.  Battery boxes are usually a fairly light grade of steel plate.  The doors would have lightweight hinges, and generally be closed by very simple hasps and pins.  These boxes appear to be "heavy duty" with solid latches and heavy hinges, consistent with AC ice boxes I've seen on other cars.  one thing of interest on the diagram is that it states that there are 50 battery cells, which would probably have indicated that this was a 100v car.  I've seen 100/110v cars post-war, but have never seen one from the 1930's.  Even the US Presidential Car "Ferdinand Magellan" was only a 32v (16 cells) car.  Electric appliances for safety?  Also, the Magellan also used ice actuated air conditioning, though it only has four bunkers.

Tanks "Tomstp" for providing an enjoyable little mystery!

 

I tend to agree with CZ10 that the doors on the cabinets below the floor on 1303 are more consistent with ice boxes than battery boxes.

Here is a diagram of 1401.  I do not believe it is (or was) one of the Mexican motif lounge cars used on the Sunshine in the 1930s.  However, I also don't know why the T&P would have left half a car essentially unused with a huge kitchen, if this car was to serve only as a solarium lounge.  Does anyone have any documentation on where this car was actually used, perhaps on a short segment of the Sunshine, Texarkana or Longview to Fort Worth only?
 

---

I'm thinking Coach-Buffet 1303's underbody boxes are for ice too; a buffet conversion implies an additonal heat source (grill-stove) inside that had to compensated for hence the extra ice "bunkers", especially in that heat blasted portion of Sonoran hell the T&P traversed immediatly east of El Paso.  Likewise a converted coach to coach-buffet would need maybe a single extra battery box on top of it's orignal configuration.
BTW These are really cool mug shots of these cars, thanks for posting.

Arkrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> However, I also don't know why the T&P would have left half a
> car essentially unused with a huge kitchen, if
> this car was to serve only as a solarium lounge. 

Especially when there are no dining tables!  Very strange.

Gordon  

TV trays?

That diagram for the 1400 series lounges states that they were converted from diners 1023-25 at Marshall, TX, in May 1946. Might have been a stop-gap move as lightweight equipment would be coming only 2-3 years.