I've been trying to track down the history of the two US Army coach cars (hospital cars?) now at Hill City, South Dakota on the Black Hills Central Railroad. I've looked online for available resources (like an army rolling stock roster) without luck, and I'm not quite sure where to turn at this point. A passenger car expert I'm not! If anyone can identify what type of cars these are, or provide more info as to their history, it would be most appreciated.

What I know:

Numbers are USA 556 and 557 (numbers located on trucks; later confirmed in old photos). They were last painted in a two-tone green scheme and lettered "United States Army - Transportation Corps."

Pullman returned around 1,500 stored "gothic" cars to the rails as troop cars during WWII. Most were 12-1 and 16 section sleepers.

Both cars were acquired from the Black Hills Ordnance Depot sometime in the mid-1960s. The first photo I have that shows them at Hill City is 1967.

Last service date is 1960 at "BHOD" - Black Hills Ordnance Depot, Igloo, SD.

Both cars have end doors for loading gurneys, same as seen on similar Army hospital and mortuary cars.

Thanks!

Jeff Terry

Photos taken in 2011

They are what I'd call "second-generation" Pullman sleeper heavyweights, with the heavier belt rail and the moulding over the windows (bottom of letterboard), which is post-1920 construction style. The "stepped end" construction is another mark of that style car.

If you could get a window frame loose, chances are about 99% you can identify the car-- Pullman used metal stamps to mark the wood window frames along an edge, so they'd go back into the same car after repairs/overhauls. Even wood window sills and many other parts were marked, either by stamping or by painted lettering.

These look to be in very nice shape, with little or no heavy corrosion around the vestibules. That seems to be the mark of most heavyweight Pullmans that are extant in the Northeast.

Are they parked as display cars, or are they used in train service?

Howard P.

Jeff,

They both appear to be either a Ward car or a Ward Dressing car of the Pullman flavor. For your information and files....


There are a few different types of Hospital cars from two different makers. The types of cars are as follows.

Ward Cars- These were set up like an army hospital ward of the day with varying numbers of berths to hold patients.

Ward Dressing Cars- Cars with a “dressing room” at one end. The dressing room was a clean area used to change dressings. It could also serve as an operating room for emergency surgery.

Kitchen Cars- These cars held kitchens and food storage areas to prepare meals for patients.

Unit Cars- This design created an all purpose self-contained unit. These cars typically had a ward area with berths, a small kitchen, and a dressing room. The unit car became the most popular design, because of its flexibility.


I would say that the best way to tell what the car is, is to get a good look at the interior. If it has a kitchen in it, then you can lean towards it being one of the unit cars. Just looking at the exterior though, I would venture a guess that it is one of the Ward or Ward Dressing Cars though. The reason I say that is that the Unit Cars were a later war design and delivery to the Army new. At the end of the war the USA Medical Department had on it's books 202 unit cars, 80 ward cars, 38 ward dressing cars and 60 kitchen cars, a total of 380 cars. 200 of the unit cars were built by American Car and Foundry, and had the low rolled roof. The ACF cars were also built with single rolling (RPO) door on both sides of the car. The pictures you have put up show doors that swing in (and looking at the window placement next to the doors) and do not slide.

That all being said, I would put money on it being an early war Pullman conversion. Take some pictures and send them to me of the interior if you can, and I'll Compare them against the records that I have. In terms of tracking down who had the cars before the Army....good luck. The army didn't keep very good records as to where they got the railroad equipment at the start of the war. Also, remember that the vast majority of the 1,500 Pullman returns at the beginning of the war went into troop train service until the Army started to get the 2,400 troop sleepers from Pullman and the 440 kitchen cars from ACF. Hope this helps

I associate these cars as being U.S. Mortuiary cars, used after WWII to repatriate the remains of fallen U.S. Servicemen and women.

Photos of the cars in action, can be found here:

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

I'm no expert on these cars, but a little bit of research yields a pretty solid type identification. After consulting car layouts (http://railwaysurgery.org/Army.htm), I believe them to be Hospital Ward Cars. The giveaway would be the prism window located next to the ward doors. Prism windows indicate the presence of a toilet. The only floorplan that shows a toilet next to the ward doors, is a hospital ward car.

You are correct sir. The excess Pullman cars were converted to mortuiary service after the arrival of the ACF Unit Cars.






It may not be a Ward Car. The plans you were looking on on that site are for the standard ACF design for the new cars. The older cars were not quite as standard. I'm in agreement as far as I believe that they are either Ward or Ward Dressing cars, but without seeing the interior layout, it's hard to tell. Also, it would help to see if the cars are set up for "mother train" (we would call this a unit train today) or individual unit service. Cars had to travel in groups due to the restrictions of not being the "unit" design. So for example, if the car didn't have a kitchen, it could not be seperated from a car that did....and if it didn't have a dressing area....etc.

I don't think the window arrangement is indicative of the usage, also, since the car may have been converted to a Mortuary Service car after the war. If so, the windows would have been blanked over, and the pressed prism glass and other windows could have been salvaged from another car and installed after the car made it into preservation

I am curious as to what the interior arrangement of the cars were when used in mortuary service. I assume they had shelving or racks.

I have a lot of books, manuals and documents on the Army railway service, when i get home I'll go through them to see if I can find documentation on these. The problem is they made hospital/medical cars for the military in WW2 and more later on after the war, of different designs. A lot of "WW2 Army" RR equipment around today is really from the 50s instead as a lot of that survived as the WW2 stuff was often totally worn out.

Wow, a lot of great information posted here.

The cars are parked, and to my knowledge have never been used on the railroad (they are much too long for the curves on the ex-CB&Q Keystone Spur). They were used as a restaurant in the past; one of them is now a snack bar. The other housed the South Dakota State Railroad Museum until their new building was finished.

I don't believe that they were in mortuary service, as they arrived with their windows intact. (If they were used as mortuary cars, the Army would have been the one to convert them back). The attached photo, from my collection, shows 553 stored at Hill City in 1986 with its windows intact, in the configuration that it arrived in. It would appear that Bill Heckman is using it for storage.

It is impossible to get a photo of the interior that would be of any benefit. The cars were long ago gutted of any original furnishings, partitions, etc... If there was a kitchen at one time, it was removed long ago.

Jeff Terry

Based on the wide clerestory roof visible in the 1986 photo of 553, I'd say with great certainty that it started life as a heavyweight Pullman parlor car. The sleepers had narrower clerestory sections, to better accomodate the upper berths.

Wayner's books on heavyweight Pullmans might yield some clues, especially if you start with the premise that the car was built as a parlor.

Howard P.

Great information thanks, as soon as i can i will get inside this one in Cheyenne perhaps we can solve this mystery too.

Mike Pannell

Did it occur to anyone that these are ready-made handicapped accessible?