We have a heavy weight business car here at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and we know very little about it. It looks to have been built in the 20's or 30's.

I would like to find out its history. I have yet to find any manufactor's builders plate, but then again I do not know where to look. So my question is where do I start looking to find identifing marks and then after I find them (fingers crossed) where do I go to start tracing its history?
Mark

Nevada Northern Railway Museum
nnry1@mwpower.net

> So my question is where do I start looking
> to find identifing marks and then after I
> find them (fingers crossed) where do I go to
> start tracing its history?
> Mark

Mark:

Just a couple of places to start looking would include the sides and bottoms of any drawers which might be included in cabinets or dressers, etc. Sometimes the name of the car is stamped into these areas. Also, you might take out a couple of windows, asuming that they are original stock, and take a look. Usually the car number (or name) and the window location on the car will be stamped into the frames on the edges that are concealed when the window is installed. Same goes for the bottom of (or maybe the sides of) interior doors. Car numbers, if so equipped, would sometimes be placed above the interior doors, on the frame or on a panel above the door frame. Car name might be lettered on the inside of the observation end door, and might also be on the exterior fo the door.

Hope this helps. Keep 'em between the rails!

Ken Breher
Past President, MCRHS, Inc.

Breher1257@aol.com

I believe the car in question is the former SP Sierra Nevada.

If it is a Western car, one email to Kyle Williams Wyatt in Sacramento will solve anything. On the Eastern side, Steve Zuiderveen. Good hunting.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> We have a heavy weight business car here at
> the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and we
> know very little about it. It looks to have
> been built in the 20's or 30's.

> I would like to find out its history. I have
> yet to find any manufactor's builders plate,
> but then again I do not know where to look.
> So my question is where do I start looking
> to find identifing marks and then after I
> find them (fingers crossed) where do I go to
> start tracing its history?
> Mark

Sometimes business cars were built for the railroad and other times the cars were rebuilds of existing sleepers, etc. by the railroad or by the original builder. If built by Pullman, they customarily would stamp the car name or car number on windows where to see it you would have to remove the window and look on the frame. And of course quite often a scrapped car would supply broken or rebuild windows so that always does not work, but it's a good start. If it's ACF, there is still some information out there, I believe some of it is at the one or two archives in St. Louis. Ron Goldfeder of MOT, frequently posting here, may be a good contact. If it is a Pullman rebuild, Newberry Library in Chicago may be your best bet. If it is an original Pullman product e-mail me and I'll look it up in the IRM Pullman Library archives. We have a very large collection of materials for this era including most of the original drawings and specifications. Pullman photographs for this era would most likely be at the Smithsonian Transportation Section or at the CSRM Library in Sacramento. I have the Smithsonian photo list as undoubtably many others have, and would be glad to help in this regard once the identity is established.
Sincerely, Ted Anderson, IRM Pullman Library curator

tedander@core.com

> I believe the car in question is the former
> SP Sierra Nevada.

If it is the former SP Sierra Nevada here is some information from an SP list from 1956:
143 - Sierra Nevada
78' long body (not including vestibules or platforms)
6-wheel trucks with 5x9 journals
built 1914 as EP&SW coach 1053 and rebuilt to SP-143 in 1929
SP floor plan drawing no. 1005 (I have a reduced copy of floor plan 1003 for cars 142 and 143; also a full-size copy of 1003 for only car 142)

From a 1959 SP list:
SP-143 assigned to Asst Gen Manager
Waukesha powered air conditioning system
equipped with radio-telephone equipment

Brian Norden