Its that time of year again and I am pleased to announce that a new Update for the Index has now been posted. I hope that, as you have time, you will stop by and check things out!!!

http://passcarphotos.info

As always a work of art, for the passenger car enthusiest. Thanks for your efforts in seeing this project happen.

Do you not include existing car bodies in your files...i have sent several links and photographs but none are included ?

Mike Pannell

Where did you send them? I have an email from you from 2010 but nothing more recent.

One thing to keep in mind is certain criteria I have for shots if they are to be included in the listing. Size is, well, a big one, and I tend to hold most to a minimum of 600 pixels minimum, which really is not that hard to meet but some really great shots are often not included because they are so small. Another is whether or not the shots are of the full side or nearly so, while another is the angle of the shot, which can really be a problem, making for discerning detail really difficult.

Most are chosen because of how well detail can be seen and over time some of the earlier shots that use to be listed no longer are because of better and larger shots being found. And there are always shots that are lost because of websites changing their focus and attitude about sharing shots of cars change, along with sites simply disappearing. There have been many shots that were "perfect" but when a site disappears there is little that can be done if they weren't picked up by the Wayback Machine. Some have been saved but many, many more have been lost.

Maintaining the Index is a full-time job in and of itself, and the one advantage I now have being disabled is that I can spend many hours working on the pages and how they present various cars, with a greater eye towards being able to track cars through their various owners being much easier this time around because of work that I have done. Right now, with a new Update having been posted, is the only time through the year that I have it easy but even still I am already working on some things for the coming year that I hope to do.

One thing that has surprised me about cars that are still with us is how some simply are not photographed and mentioned, with several at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation being good examples...

Some very old and historically significant passenger cars were finally found literally just days ahead of posting the new Update because someone happened to finally post some pix of them. Delaware & Hudson 400, a wood vestibuled business car, has been at the museum for many years but only now being found because of someone sharing a pic of the car and likewise a former Lehigh Valley coach that use to work for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, and then there is the very rare heavyweight generator - coach of the Burlington, one of only a few such cars that were not modernized when it was rebuilt. I am deeply indebted to folks who can and do share their shots and I continue to hope for more to be found.

I am human and sometimes things do fall through the cracks in the floors, especially so if there is a significant event happening in my life when someone tries to contact me. I feel very bad about this and I try to get caught up but things still do get missed. If a person does send me something or finds something do not hesitate to email me more than once just to be safe. I want to gain as much as can be gained and if it takes more than one email to remind me of something I will not take offense.

To contact me remember to use my Gmail address as all of the others are not checked. My Gmail address is: jmlaboda[at]gmail.com. I will do my best to follow up on anything that is sent.

You're doing a great job, Jerry.
Please let me know through this forum if you ever come across any extant wooden-bodied end-to-end Pullman sleeping cars.
I asked some years ago here if anyone knew of any but it seems Pullman scrapped them as they became redundant, which makes the Australian-built car that I've been restoring for the last 14 years more significant than I would have originally thought.
Cheers, Bob