Nostalgia & History > Troop sleeper in Texas

Dec 77

It was always nice to run across a WWII Pullman troop sleeper - especially one with original trucks (hard to see but they are there).
One of those is in work service for the MKT in Hillsboro,Tx.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/20 11:43 by gcm.

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Good catch. Yes, those original trucks are strange looking trucks.
Bob

T&P had several of those in work trains.

I wonder how those Fox Trucks rode, compared with the standard Bettendorf style.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

JimBaker Wrote:
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> I wonder how those Fox Trucks rode, compared with
> the standard Bettendorf style.

They're NOT Fox trucks. They're Allied Full Cushion trucks and by most reports they rode well.

ATSF Fe-24 50' express boxcars had Allied Full Cushion trucks as delivered, and from what I've read these trucks
had a tendency to derail, especially at high speeds. ATSF replaced these whenever possible. These cars were delivered
before and during WW2.

PRR also had problems with run-thru New Haven 3600-class Storage/Mail cars which had the Allied trucks, after several
derailments this equipment was refused interchange by PRR after 1955. New Haven replaced these trucks were either GSC-BX types
or Symington-Gould XL's.

I haven't read anything regarding problems with the troop sleepers ('side door Pullmans' as soldiers called them) since I
don't know if these trains ran at all-Pullman train speeds, even though these trains had priority movement along with in-transit
military equipment.

 

Nice photo illustrating MKT version of troop sleeper rebuild. 
Picking them up as government surplus was probably a real good deal.
Thanks for the interesting photo posting.
ALLEN  

The GIs hated them.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I imagine they were like an oven in the summer.

I've read of soldiers in these troop cars waking up covered in cinders in their bunks, open window coolng of course.