I am curios what Rock Island did with the "Golden Rocket" 22 Roomette sleeper "La Costa" after they no longer included 22 Roomette cars in their passenger train consists?

Was it eventually rebuilt into a baggage or RPO car similar to the fate of the NYC 22 Roomette cars purchased by Rock Island in 1959?

Hu

Found this on an ACL related board: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a ... _id=0055Ux

"Sometime in early 1954, late 1953 Rock Island decided to eliminate Trains 15 & 16 (The Mid-Continent Special) and extend the "Texas Rocket" to Minneapolis as a replacement. The name "Texas Rocket" was dropped and the train became known simply as 509-510. In addition, the Pullman pool 10-3's were worn out, so replacement cars had to be found. Needed more "pass rider and government travel" space..they decomissioned La Costa - a 22 roomette Golden Rocket car - from the Golden State Route and reduced the number of sellable spaces to 21, with the last roomette becoming the porter's "office/bedroom". However, this was only one car that could not possibly cover the entire Minnesota to Texas route on a daily basis. A search went out for other cars with similar configurations. Enter the Atlantic Coast Line. ACL had long needed and used extensively cars of the 4-4-2 configuration on their Florida trains. They were able to sell "room" space more often that "roomette" space; therefore, when approached by the Rock Island to "swap"...the deal was a natural. Let's look at some hypotheses here: Both railroads maintained their equipment constantly (remember this is the Rock Island of another era), the equipment was similar in finish (mostly stainless steel exteriors), and each road was easy to deal with; whereas a similar swap with the NYC or PRR would have been impossible and arduous. Also, WHO ELSE really had any 21 roomette cars just laying around they didn't want. "

Thank you very much for that information! That is very helpful.

Hu

According to the information compiled by Tom Madden, "La Costa" was withdrawn from Pullman lease as of November 1, 1958.

Tom Madden's information can be found at The Pullman Project.

Robert Wayner's Car Names, Numbers and Consists (1972) may contain additional information about any subsequent rebuild. My copy is boxed up and offsite, otherwise I would have checked it for additional information.

I have my Wayner's out. He lists pre-Amtrak sale of cars between railroads and it does not show cars sold or traded between CRI&P and ACL. I suspect each road retained ownership of the cars and exchanged them through the Pullman Pool.

CRI&P had one 22-roomette car, 660 LA COSTA, plan 4122A, built in 1948 for a proposed "Golden Rocket" between Chicago and Los Angeles via Tucumcari. The train never ran and the cars went to the Golden State. CRI&P did buy ten 22-roomette cars (P-S 1948, Plan 4122) from NYC in 1959-1961 but rebuilt them into head-end cars without operating them as sleepers.

ACL used ten 21-roomette cars (P-S 1949, Plans 4156 and 4156A) with ownership ACL six cars, RF&P one car, FEC two cars and PRR two cars (4156A PRR only) ACL's Florida traffic was highly seasonal, peaking in Winter, and the consortium of roads was accustomed to use cars from the Pullman Pool.

CRI&P's Golden State business was also somewhat seasonal with Midwest snowbirds migrating to or vacationing in Arizona in Winter.

A November, 1955 Official Guide shows CRI&P 509-510 Texas Rocket with a 21 Roomette car between Minneapolis and Kansas City in each direction, and CRI&P 9 Corn Belt Rocket with a 21 roomette car from Chicago to Des Moines and CRI&P 2 (no name) with a 21 Roomette car from Des Moines to Chicago.

The Guide shows ACL 77-78 Palmetto (51-50 between Florence and Augusta) with a 21 Roomette car between NY and Augusta in each direction.

A March, 1959 Guide shows CRI&P had partially withdrawn from Pullman and was operating its own sleeping cars on most on-line trains but was not scheduling a 21 Roomette car on any train.

Phil Mulligan

Mr. Dave Engle kindly provided the following additional information:

"Two mail trains had roomette sleepers; one was 505 and 2/6 between Mpls & KC, They were Pullman Parris Island and St. Solomons Island" (should read St. Simons Island). "I got to see them many times at Newton in those days. The second pair were Pullman Roanoke Island and, maybe RI LaCosta. I never saw these cars during this assignment era. .

LaCosta's fate was scrapped by a W. Silver dealer in NM. I never followed the 3 Island cars to their fates. There were 4 sleepers in the 610-611 group which were slated for conversion to baggage-dorms, but apparently it was a better deal to cut them loose and acquire the ex-NYC cars which became 821-up."

Thank you, everyone, for the valuable feedback to this thread!

Hubert

We've come full circle. The three "Island" cars are ACL 21 Roomette cars from the 1949 P-S group (Plan 4156).

Tom Madden's site shows Roanoke Island was Withdrawn From Lease to Pullman (WFL) 9-26-1966, St Simons Island WFL 4-24-1967 and Wayner shows Parris Island was rebuilt by ACL to 11 Double Bedrooms (Plan 6007) and renamed Magnolia Gardens in 7-1962.

Phil Mulligan