I am scratching my head to think of potential candidates.
I think a candidate would have to be ex-Southern or ex-Santa Fe that operated on Amtrak in the early 1980s, and in the case of Santa Fe cars that weren't selected for the Heritage Fleet. And, weren't later converted for excursion service, as were many of the Southern 800-series coaches. And isn't preserved, so available to be a parts donor. That doesn't leave many candidates.

The only possible donor I can think of is: the FWRHS/765 group had an ex-Southern bag/dorm of some sort that they used for a year or two, but has been sitting on a siding for 30+ years since. Possibly that still has steam a/c. And, there was an ex-Southern RPO/bag car of some type sitting on a siding in the Millington, MI area about 15 years ago. I don't know if it still exists or not. If I think of any others I will let you know.

The problem with preserving steam a/c systems was: to convert a car to a modern system for excursion service, you had to torch off the entire old steam a/c system and start over. There weren't any components you could re-use, as you could from DC battery/Spicer drive a/c systems. So most of the steam a/c systems were torched off and discarded in the 1980s.

If you peek under some business car used as an office or a private residence for the past 50 years, you may see a steam a/c system, but I doubt it would be more than remains now.

The Western Railroad Museum at Rio Vista has a car with ice AC... The Circumnavigators Club. http://www.wrm.org/visit/car-roster/pas ... ators-club It was operable in the mid 1980's, and is likely still operable... At Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, we have Ellsmere, the last car built by Wagner, a private car for the president of Wagner... It has ice AC installed by the Texas & Pacific c.1936. We are making repairs to allow occasional use.

Both these cars have roof loaded ice tanks.

Large blocks of ice (300 lbs, 1'x2'x3') are available in larger cities... this was the standard ice block both cut or made. They continue to be made for ice sculptures...

Randy

ctjacks, Thank you!

Some years ago, I was involved in the sale of two ex-Amtrak, ex-Santa Fe Budd 1946 coaches to the Austin Steam Train Association in Austin, TX. These 2 cars still had original equipment underneath. One of the two cars has not been rebuilt yet and still has the complete Safety-Carrier steam ejector AC system under the car. You might get ahold of them and I'm sure you could help yourself to that system for whatever it might be worth in scrap. Or, maybe they would give it to you if you are capable of carefully removing it yourself since it would save the them the trouble. Get out there before it gets too hot though, since Austin is no picnic from May thru September.

See the thread from today re: surviving Southern RR modernized heavyweights. There are likely some potential donors on that list - although as I said previously, these are cars that have sat parked for 50 years, so there may not be much left underneath the cars.

Thank you Topfuel & ctjacks!