I know August Busch owned a P.V. Adolphus, which was built in the 1890s. However, I seem to remember that there was a later incarnation of the car, built either by P-S or Budd or maybe a RR such as the Wabash, in the 1940s or early 1950s. Am I correct? If so, does anyone know what became of the later Adolphus? Any help would be appreciated.

Mr. Wilkins...

The car was home shop built by I believe the Wabash...It likely was converted from something else...I believe the Wabash built two cars of similar exterior appearance...The car was later sold to the PRR, and also ran in Penn Central ownership before being sold off to I believe William Kratville...The car was then at some point leased to Amtrak to become a business car or special function car....Upon the end of that agreement, the car eventually made it to Mid America Inc in Kansas City....where as of 2 years ago it sat totally neglected and I believe I recall at one point I saw it for sale...When I was on the car at Mid America...it had a Amtrak inspired bright orange interior...and was pretty much a neglected shell...leaking badly.

Hope that quick history helps a bit....Perhaps someone can elaborate if anything has happened in the last 2 plus years...



Dean Levin

I spent three days aboard the car in 1984 when it was Amtrak's premier business car, the 10000, traveling in Louisiana and Texas, including a "memorable" dinner aboard the car the first evening in Baton Rouge.......I hadn't slept in 24 hours prior to the trip and the attendants were making screwdrivers that were 90 percent vodka. It took all my efforts and kicks from cohorts under the table to keep me from falling over into my salad.....but at the end of the night, I got my second wind and was the only one awake and sober enough to get everyone back to their hotel and safely tucked in bed.

I don't know when Amtrak got rid of the car, but I was shocked to see its condition 20 plus years later sitting in Kansas City at Mid America:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=638058

Interesting photo. It shows the car was "de-fulted" at some point.

I wonder what the core car was? The 10000 is very similar to Wabash 400, which later ended up on the Ontario Northland.

OK...from a book I have about PRR business cars:
Built in 1954 by Wabash in their shops for Anheuser-Busch
Rebuilt in 1958 to deal with leaks (oops)
Sold to PRR in 1965 (Class Z85, number 1000)
Traded to SR in 1970 (a surprise)
sold to Wyly Co. in 1971
Repaired by Fratville
Bought by Kratville
Rebuilt by Kratville (1975) and leased to Amtrak
Out of Amtrak Lease 1991
I cannot find when this book was published so the timeline becomes weak at this point. Apparently it returned to private ownership and continued to be run on Amtrak trains? Maybe somebody can fill us in at this point.
The "current" pictures in the book show it still with the fluting...so no idea when that happened. Also the photos of the interior show a very dreadful looking car.
T7

Don't know if this is correct, from Railway Passenger Car Annual:

Built 1954, Wabash shops, ex A-B "Aldophus", ex N&W/WAB 400, ex PRR 1000, ex Wyly Corp DC 1000, ex Autoliner UC 1000, then Amtrak 10000.

Autoliner(Omaha, NE) is the "William Kratville" mentioned above. I think he acquired it back from Amtrak when it left that fleet.

I assume by "dreadful" you mean "the best of Amtrak 1970s interior design?"

As a side note, the original incarnation of the Adolphus was reputed to have beer taps in each of the bedrooms. I wonder if the modern incarnation of the car was so equipped?

I actually know something first-hand about this, but I think I need to pull my punches a little, since Bill Kratville is still with us. He had a lease arrangement with Amtrak that included giving him a couple of weeks each year to run the car on the back of Amtrak trains for his own use.

I remember why Amtrak gave the car up and sharply curtailed use of #10001, the converted Amcoach Beech Grove. Someone, maybe a disgruntled Amtrak employee, gave the tabloid "newspaper" The Boston Herald (a Murdoch owned rag like the NY Post) a bunch of internal memos and menus on executive use of the PV's for inspection trips and special events. This was near the end of the Claytor era. The Herald then used the info for a series of inflamed "exposes" on how Amtrak officials were wining and dining extravagantly on the public dime. Shortly after that Amtrak canceled the lease on car #10000 and returned the car to Bill. I'm really sorry to hear about current state of the car. I believe it was one of, if not the last, PV's to be built new in the U. S.

For those with an interest in the car... here are a few interesting details...

The car was built utilizing a frame from a Wabash coach. (and built at the Wabash Decatur shops ) .. It was ordered by the Busch's in 1953 and delivered in 1954... It had stainless steel fluting ordered new from the Budd Company... It was delivered with an 8 ton Frigidaire air conditioning system... Section berths and dividing walls were ordered from Pullman Standard... Clark Peeper Company provided all the on board office furniture ( Bachman Furniture provided the lounge furniture ) ...United Bedding provided all the mattresses and box springs.. St Louis shower door provided the shower doors... Walrus Manufacturing Company provided the kitchen equipment... The outside swing hanger trucks came from the PRR ( PRR class 2F-P2 ) ... with other parts coming from General Steel Castings in Granite City IL.... Car was purchased directly from the Wabash for 300,000.00... and was eventually sold to the PRR in September 1965 for 100,000.00.... After 5 years of use, the car was returned to the Wabash due to excessive corrosion and leaks ( imagine that ).... The car was constructed with steel sides, with plywood panels on the outside to allow the stainless to be attached to the plywood to stop moisture from rotting out the car body... ( which apparently didn't last more than 5 years ) ....

By 1969 ( after its time on the PRR and Penn Central ) the car was sold to the Southern RR and was involved in a 5 car swap... and as part of the deal the car was sold for 44,000 to Mr Saw Wyly of Texas.... Wyly used the car ( after spending approximately 150,000.00 to restore the car to operation ) and later in 1975 sold he car to Krattville who later leased it to Amtrak.....

And... if that's not enough.... the car I mentioned that was similar to the Adolphus was Wabash 400...( which was being built at the same time as the Adolphus ).. which later became N&W 400 "The Exporter" before being sold to the Ontario Northland in 1971...

Finally... for Mr. Wilkins.... Greisedieck-Western Brewing Company ( of Belleville IL ) producer of Stag Beer, did not have a private car, nor do I believe did the Carling Brewing Company ( who bought the Stag brewery in 1954 ) ....An interesting twist to St. Louis area brewing history ?



Dean Levin

Mr. Levin and others,

Thank you for the information. Talk about depreciation! I wonder how much, if at all the car was used by A-B and the Busch family. I also wonder where it was stabled when in St. Louis. My guess is somewhere on the A-B owned Manufacturer's Railway.

While Stag did not have a private car, the Lemp family, owners of the Lemp Brewery, did own an interurban railroad over in Illinois. I think the interurban outlived the family brewing business, which Prohibition killed.

I'm 135 miles from my reference books as I type this, returning from a railfan friend's funeral, but....

Wasn't this the car that became Amtrak's first "business car," the 10,000?

Yes.

By "dreadful" I mean that in every picture of the interior from the earliest to the latest it looks "dreadful". In one color picture of the dining room it appears as if the wood has been glazed in a froggy spring-green.

If I had to ride in that choo choo...I would need at least a 12-pack of icee cold bottles of Stag beer. 'nuff said?

T7

I swear that when I typed that up at 19:30 EST this evening there were NO replies showing...........

Watch out guys, I think the '70's may be creeping back up on us. I drove by the local Chevy dealership today and there was a brand-new 2011 Camaro sitting in front, painted lime-green metallic. The scary part is that someone will probably buy it..........