A few months back there was considerable discussion about what purpose and function of the coaches in the train in these photos served.

My apologies to the current owner of these photos. I use them without permission.




I was spelunking a link I found in a Yahoo group and found these photos of what is obviously a contemporary (2004) version of the same train. Anybody know what this train's purpose is?

http://members.tripod.com/n83dc/images/santafe2.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/n83dc/images/santafe3.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/n83dc/images/santafe1.jpg

Their home page: http://members.tripod.com/n83dc/mile_post_18.htm

Gawd, I hate folks that don't caption their &%^$#@ photos.

It *appears* that what we're lookiing at is the newest addition to the BNSF business car fleet, which *appears* to be a converted C&NW bilevel commuter car (although I can't rule out SP yet).

The "stadium" or "theatre" style of seating, affording everybody riding in the rear a good view of the receding railroad and not just the two or three folks in the front row, has been a common sight in railroad business cars for at least 25 years. The Southern Railway used to prominently feature a rear-end view of such a car, occupied by various officials, in a two-page advertisement they ran in Trains Magazine as far back as the 1970s.

(Now, the neat thing about using a bilevel is that gives you *so* much more room to layer seats stadium-style.....)

BNSF inheirited those cars ex-SP Gallery Cars (not C&NW) from BN. You can see some pics of them in BN colors here:

http://archive.trainpix.com/BN/PASSCAR/BUSINESS/THUMB3.HTM

I don't know which car has the theater seating...it's not pictured on this page.
EDIT: It looks like it might be BNSF 80 Rio Grande River based on this roster and the following photos:
http://home.earthlink.net/~n5dhg/bnsfpass.htm

As BNSF 43:
http://www.qstation.org/BNSF_Biz_Cars/jpeg/BNSF_car_43.jpg

As BNSF 80:
http://adsl-69-213-240-177.dsl.dytnoh.ameritech.net/amtrak/otherPAS/BNSF_Ravenna%2C%20NE.jpg

Regards,

Erich

My gut feeling is that the steam train serves a far different purpose than the bi-level car.

The two photos show an inspection car with stadium style seats used by officials for track and right of way inspection. Both photos are PRR with the first showing an early Atlantic type (probably E2 or similar). Date is probably very early 1900's.