Nostalgia & History > SP articulated chair cars on The Sunbeam

The Sunbeam, SP's streamlined little brother to the Daylights.

Operated in Houston-Dallas, with daylight paint and P-14 Pacifics as power.

Fun facts here.

Photo at Dallas by HA DeGolyer

---

---

---

SP's Sunbeam also appeared on the label of Night Train wine, as seen here.  And no, I don't drink the stuff.

mike woodruff
north platte ne

---

Neat article.  I've always thought the Sunbeam's streamlined Pacifics (as well as the entire train) were quite classy.

 Oh my...Night train is actually a Gallo wine product. 

After they pressed their grapes about 20 times  next press was "Night Train"....  and Cheap.

I guess they were embarrested and did not want to put Gallo on lable.

Only the City & State.   

The vintner failed to consider that the Sunbeam was a daytime train when they named their product. I don't thing their clientele much cared.

Was the ride for articulated cars better than with coupled cars?

The set of Articulated Chair Cars that Montana Rail Link used for its business train were former T&NO/Sunbeam. I believe there is another surviving set.

Posted from iPhone

badman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The set of Articulated Chair Cars that Montana Rail Link used for its business train were former T&NO/Sunbeam.
> I believe there is another surviving set.

Correct.  The pair that went to MRL (as #102A-B) was the #502-#503/#2498-#2499, via Algoma Central (#452-#453) and later Doyle McCormack.  I recall the pair was damaged while in Montana, hence why the Portland folks decided to subsequently resell it to MRL.

The other known surviving pair from the T&NO is the #504-#505/#2456-#2455, which was among the cars that Amtrak acquired from the Espee in 1973 during the oil crisis and placed in the #75xx-series, with the #2456-#2455 becoming #7524-#7523.  It was one of several of these articulated pairs (more on that below) sold just a few years later (1977) to the California Western, then moved to the Yreka Western.  It and one of the other pairs later were resold again to the Grand Traverse Dinner Train in Cadillac, MI, then moved to the Columbia Star Dinner Train in Columbia, MO, and now reside at the Wisconsin Great Northern in Spooner, WI.

And some other surviving pairs:

The other pair that went from AMTK to CW (??) to YW to the dinner trains to the WGN was the #2463-#2464 (AMTK #7528-#7529), one of the pairs built in 1941.

The #2445-#2446 (a 1939 pair) was also on the CW initially (but from SP direct, not via AMTK), then moved to the San Pedro & Southwestern down in Benson, AZ.  Various reports indicate that this pair is now gone.  (There is some confusion between this and the pair directly below.)

A fourth pair, #2467-#2468 (1941) also went to AMTK, as #7530-#7531, then spent time on the CW and YW, then also moved to the SP&SW, and after operations ended down there, was acquired by the Pacific RR Society, and is now at the museum (Orange Empire/Southern CA) out in Perris, CA.

Algoma Central had acquired a number of these pairs from the Espee, and most of those are now unaccounted for, but one other pair that was in the AC fleet also survives; the #2473-#2474 (1941), to AC #458-#459, to the Bytown RY Society in 1988, to the Golden Gate RR Museum in 1998, now on the Niles Canyon RY.

Lastly, the #2416-#2417, the only known surviving 1937 pair, was among those sold to AMTK, as #7521-#7522, and it was one of a number of cars that were then resold to the Boquet Movie Ranch in Newhall, CA.  Boquet has quite the variety of rare cars on-site.