Hello all,

Does anybody here have information on the disposition of the
ex-Illinois Central cars used on the Oregon Pacific & Eastern in the
late 1970's and early 1980's. In various photos I have seen both
Pullman Standard lightweight cars and Burnside shop rebuilds. If
somebody has roster info. without final dispositions, that would be
helpful too.

From what I understand these cars may have ended up on the Yreka Western - and that this railraod recently sold a number of passenger cars. I would also be interested in this equipment regardless of its heritage.

Additionally, any leads on former IC passenger equipment that is
reasonably close to the configuration it last served the IC (no HEP'd
PVs please - DC and steam welcome) would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Tom Cornillie

Hi -
Not 100% sure on this, I thought the OP&E sold the original trainset (stainless with a blue stripe) to Amtrak as it lacked good AC. May have been used on early San Diego runs? This would have been in the early 1970's. I believe the IC cars came next, and were used up to the end(brown with a ogange-ish stripe)..... Not sure where those went too.....One of their switchers was painted to match the cars also.

I seem to remember hearing/seeing somewhere that the OP&E cars went to the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. But that could be wrong.

The OP&E used three sets of passenger cars during its excursion years. The first set- used for only a year or two- consisted of six ex-SP "Subs". In 1972 the railroad retired the original equipment, replacing it with two Milwaukee and four Illinois Central coaches, a Western Pacific rear end dome lounge, and and a Canadian Pacific open car. The railroad also picked up two generator cars from the Western Pacific. This train set lasted from 1972 until 1974, when the OP&E sold the entire collection (save for the generator cars and the CP open car) to Los Angeles County for possible operation between Los Angeles and San Diego. These cars continued to sit in Los Angeles as late as 1983. The CP car went back to its lessor. By 1975 the railroad had its final equipment set- six coaches, one with a snack section, and one lounge car. This information comes from Fred Stindt's self published 1983 book on the OP&E.

Both primary OP&E locomotives- Alco S-2 #21 and EMD SW-8 #602- got brown and orange paint jobs to match the coaches. Both locomotives still exist, and last I knew both still wore the brown and orange.

The YW had five cars on their excursion era roster...three ex-SP "Subs" and two ex-Milwaukee smoothside coaches. Two of the subs and the two ex-MILW cars made up the excursion train. Both of the ex-MILW cars had the Hiawatha logo still inlaid at the end of each car. The railroad leased all three subs and a passenger flat from the Great Western Railroad Museum; I seem to believe the MILW cars came via the California Western.

Last I heard the Great Western had all four of their cars for sale. Martin Hansen purchased the passenger flat for use behind the ex-Mount Emily Lumber Company Shay currently operating on the City of Prineville Railroad; last I knew the three subs were still in Yreka, but are still for sale.

At one point YW had 2 or 3 buisness cars on static display in the Yreka yards. All of them, or almost all of them, left for new homes.


Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Please explain ex-SP "Subs." Thanks.

Les

I think we may have gotten a few of the SP commuter cars. Two of them are in service as coaches and the third is our open car. (roof cut off at the window line) Possibly one more is now at the C&CRR in Chehalis as their open car, but I'm not sure if that's the origin of that car or not...

As for the rest, I don't think they're part of our collection.

Martin, do you know any details or recall more info?

Short for "suburban coaches", cars configured for commuter service. These were a standard pattern, economical, high seating capacity coach common on the SP in San Francisco service, built for service in the 1920's with steam power. They lasted all the way into the early 1980's, and because (I believe) they were 1920's era, in good condition, and cheap, they appeared on many tourist railroads, such as the Grand Canyon and the Skunk Train.

An IC heavyweight baggage car and coach are part of a private collection in Hudson, Colorado. Baggage car is presently numbered 631 and coach has #2242, no clue if these are original or made up numbers but the cars are Illinois Central.

Jason Midyette

The SW8 last I knew was owned by Dick Samuels/ Oregon Pacific Railroad. It spent some time on the former Portland Traction property and last I saw was on the former SP Mollala Branch, both now operated under the Oregon Pacific. Still had OP&E paint and markings last I saw.

One of the heater cars is now owned by Doyle, renamed "Little Boy" and repainted into Daylight colors. It is used to preheat the 4449 before fire-up.

The other heater car I think ended up at Mid-Continent and was cosmetically restored to GN paint and markings.

A large part of the early OP&E collection ended up in Texas. These include a steam locomotive and the former SP RDC #10. I don't know if the SP triple unit was part of this group.

Smokebox

Does anyone know what happened to the 100 ton G.E.Center cab # 111 they had at one time?

There were 75 of these cars built 1924 and 1927 and were 72' long (less the vestibules) and seated 96 people. They had the typical "Harriman" or "semi-elliptical" roof.

The Southern Pacific always identified its passenger cars' length by measuring the basic box (over end sills) without vestibules. These cars were classified as 72-IC-1, 72-IC-72 and 72- IC-3. The notation “IC” stood for "Interurban Coach."

Bob- Thanks for the information/correction. My memory may be faulty, or the information I saw referred to the subs.

Speaking of subs...here is a good website that tells all, with some photos!

http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_jose/depo ... /cars.html

Smokebox- the #602 is still in Mollala, unless things have changed recently. The equipment move to Galveston included only a few historical pieces...the Budd car was the only piece of passenger equipment that went southeast.

Since we are on ex-IC cars...the short lived Orlando & Mount Dora used a number of streamlined coaches that looked very IC-ish, at least in the paint department. Anyone know where these came from? Could these be the OP&E cars?

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

The CHCX open car is a former heavyweight that was cut down by BN for use as a crane tender.

I ran across this photo of SP commute cars on the YW, posted in 2003, perhaps taken then also, if it is of any help:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?j ... fornia.jpg