I was wandering the backlot of the local military surplus store and came across this WWII Army Hospital Car, last used as USAX G-25, and probably last stationed at Hill Air Force Base or Defense Depot Ogden.



This was the source for another hospital car in Utah, which was purchased and beautifully restored by the Golden Spike Chapter R&LHS and now exhibited at the Utah State Railroad Museum:


I know there is one other back east that was the inspiration for the Golden Spike Chapter to obtain the car at the USRRM, but I can't remember where it is.

So, my question is, how many of these hospital cars are still in existence?

The Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, WA has an old kitchen car from a Hospital train. The car still has two army coal ranges inside it, which help produce quite a lot of wonderful cookies for the Santa Train. Man, those cookies are good. :-)

http://www.trainmuseum.org/USA89601.asp

NCTM (Spencer, NC) has one fully restored, and there are still 2 on Ft Eustis, along with 2 kitchen cars.

Four of these cars wound up at Heber City, Utah in 1971 and were used on the Wasatch Mountain Railway (Heber Creeper). They supposedly went to the Fort Worth & Western in 1988-89, but I've not been able to determine if they still exist there.

There is one converted to a table car in Jack Showalter's Virginia Central train set. I believe he had several others that were salvaged for their trucks and later scrapped.

Alan Maples

You really CAN find anything at Smith & Edwards, Josh! I guess you know there are a couple of hospital cars on display out at the little train museum in Tooele, Utah. (Also a Tooele Valley 2-8-0)

There is one at the Boulder county railroad historical society a 1910 built Diner, US Army 509.
http://www.bcrhs.org/passenger_cars.htm
Moved from Cheyenne to boulder in the early 1990's......but we still have another here too or at least we believe it is and have yet to get inside to find numbers etc. There is a second car at this site that has been buried as a drainage tank or something !

Mike Pannell
Cheyenne

There is reportedly one on display at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. The Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, VA, had two on display until they were displaced by new acquisitions, and when I saw them last summer, they were both in Hanks Yard on post, along with a third that was in poor condition. A fourth has been sitting behind the enginehouse on post for many years.

Mike, I think heavyweight car you have pictured is actually a U.S. Army Mortuary car, converted after World War II. In that service, they had their windows blanked out.

There is a good article online, with excellent photos culled from the Life Magazine archives that detail this:

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/milrr/batbtww2repat.html

Also, I believe the KCS and CSX business trains each contain several former U.S. Army Hospital cars.

Hmmm sobering thought if thats true about the car in Cheyenne, do you think the Boulder county one is a mortuary car too, is there a list of cars and numbers somewhere? We will get inside this one and find out and hopefully find its early history too, the window blanks look like they are added by the trailer park but again we will look inside.

Mike

I seem to recall that the crew car on the Chessie Steam Special was one of the hospital cars. All I know for certain is that the bunks were spaced pretty tightly. You'd wake up, go to sit up in bed and bang your head! ;)

I very vaguely recall it was from someplace in West Virginia, but I could be mistaken on that. Anyone have a roster or know details?

I believe the car in question was Army "Ambulance" (hospital) car USAX 89545, then owned by the West Virginia Railroad Maintenance Authority. According to information provided by Bill Howes, the Chessie System later acquired the car in trade for some open window coaches that went to the state. It may now be part of the CSX business train.

Alan Maples

Mike,

It's my understanding that the traditional heavyweights were converted to mortuary cars, while the hospital cars were built new by ACF with round roof.

During the Korean War, the USATC ordered a new series of hospital cars, that are virtually identical to the WWII era ones, though they have 2 axle trucks. There was one of these stored by the enginehouse at Ft. Eustis a number of years ago.

My guess is that both the Cheyanne and Boulder cars are mortuary cars. I have never seen how the interiors were arranged, but I imainge there was shelving or racks on both sides to hold the standard metal coffins. I don't think you would have the same arrangement in an ambulance car.

The program to repatriate the remains of U.S. personnel after World War II was a massive undertaking, and lasted until the early 1950s. I would imagine that the government used many of these converted heavyweights for this important, but sobering duty.

I was referring to the AC&F cars, but look at all the great stuff that was brought up! I had never heard of the mortuary cars until now, thanks.

There might have been some heavyweight hospital cars though. I recall a photograph of a Bamberger train leaving Hill Air Force Base conisting of heavyweights with the red cross symbol on the side, without the blanked-over windows. I'm not quite sure though.

That sounds familiar...