Good afternoon,

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but I've been too busy to do it till now. As of June 20th 2019, the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum now owns the SSW #1 DIXIE! We are very thankful to the Tyler Railroad Museum for their generous offer and will strive to preserve the DIXIE and her heritage.


SARHM is planning on finishing off the restoration of the DIXIE and paint it in the original delivery scheme of the SP Daylight inspired scheme it first wore. We are looking for photos of the interior, if any exist, from when it was in service on the SSW. We would like to get the interior of the DIXIE restored as closely to how it looked.

Some general information as to the condition of the DIXIE are as follows:

-The interior is somewhat complete. Trans Texas Rail had been working on refurbishing the DIXIE up to the time TTR lost its shop location at the old SP roundhouse here in SA. The majority of the electrical for conversion to HEP had been completed and only the interior electrical work remains.

-All of the interior furnishings have been removed. The original beds are rotted and have been disposed of. The dining room table and chairs are not in the car, nor are the other chairs from the lounge area.

-Due to recent events with the UPRR and miscommunications, the DIXIE was almost scrapped on us. As such, a remediation company had been called to determine whether there was any asbestos present in the car. Fortunately all the asbestos had been removed by TTR when they started the refurbishing process, however the company doing the remediation work removed all the Adlake windows from the car while trying to determine if the car was clear or not. We have all the window frames, but many of them suffered from "target practice" by local youth who thought it great to break the expensive glass. We will be needing to replace the glass in all but 5 windows who managed to survive.


So as it goes, once we have the car moved from its present location out to a local rail park for storage, we will be looking for people who can help us get the windows back in the car. None of our people know how to install the Adlake gaskets and window frames.



So I have a couple questions for y'all here.

1.) What kind of glass is required in the windows of our car? What we have now is two pieces of glass with an air space between. Is this what we need or do we need the FRA windows like those on locomotives?

2.) Where can we acquire Microphor toilets? All of the previous toilets are gone, so we are at least looking to upgrade to the Mircophor toilet system.


I'll be posting more on the DIXIE soon and will have more questions too.

Gary Rodriguez
President/CEO
San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum

Best wishes for your restoration. Contact the Railroad Passenger Car Owners Association regarding resources and "how to do it" stuff.

This is the most current photo of the Dixie. -Gary

Gary -

1) The type of glazing required depends on the type of service you'll use the car in. General rule - If you're going to stuff-and-mount or operate it in tourist service you can replace the glazing with the same safety glass as was there before (available at any local commercial glass shop), but if you're going for Amtrak certification it will need FRA certified glazing. If the Adlake frames you have are for the typical double quarter inch glazing, you can direct substitute certified Margard or Makrolon polycarbonate. Even in a museum setting the poly is better resistant to rocks/spikes/tie plates/etc than glass. The certified poly can be double the cost but is also easier to work with (and you can buy sheets and cut it yourselves with a little instruction). Common Adlake unit frames can also be converted to single pane poly with a different gasket. Gaskets are available. PM me if you need more info.

2) Microphor is a unit of Wabtec now, Sanitary System web page is https://www.wabtec.com/products/1415/bi ... ent-system, contact them directly.

https://www.facebook.com/SARHMinc/posts ... 5792335089
"San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum We at the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum, would like to express our deepest thanks to the Union Pacific Railroad and to all the employees who helped orchestrate the move of the former SSW #1 “Dixie” and MKT 402 business cars. These cars are symbols of the rich heritage the Union Pacific Railroad is built upon. When restored, the SSW #1 “Dixie”, MKT 402, as well as the SP 127 “Alamo” will all be preserved pieces of what makes the Union Pacific the greatest railroad in the United States.
As President of SARHM, I am extremely grateful to the help of the local South Texas Service Unit management and employees who made this historic event possible. Without their hand, this move would not have been made possible. As such, when the SSW #1 “Dixie” and MKT 402 will both have plaques placed inside the cars both commentating the move by the Union Pacific Railroad and in thanks for their generosity as well.
I am looking forward to whats coming in SARHM’s future. With the possible acquisition of THREE locomotives, another passenger car and a caboose, we have exciting times ahead. Hopefully we will once again be able to work with the Union Pacific Railroad in preserving both Texas and the UPRR’s railroad heritage.
With much thanks,
Gary Rodriguez
President/CEO
San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum"

I think it's great that another heavyweight car is saved.
Does the museum have a web page other than facebook which some of us refuse to go onto?

http://www.sarhm.org/ Though they don't seem to update it often.

Thanks PMC. Not a lot of info but better than none. #127 is one of my favorite cars I followed it when "for sale" and am glad it got saved. Wish they had more pics of the interior and exterior of both cars (couldn't open the galleries).
Ned

There are around 90 photos of the interior of SSW #1 from two years ago on there, they opened for me using firefox. There also are 15 photos of what they describe as "MKT Business Car - Mallard", not sure if it is the same as MKT 402 but if it is the condition inside seems reasonable. Anyone know where the cream-colored paint scheme on MKT 402 came from?

Got 'em thanks.

Some additional information about MKT 402, copied and pasted from the "Surviving KCS passenger cars" thread: "Pullman Standard Business Car #101, originally- MKT #402. Reportedly sold to a private owner in Tulsa, circa 1968. Painted and re-lettered for Mallard Transportation "RPCX 101". Moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas for restoration in 2004. Reportedly located in Union Pacific’s East Yard in San Antonio, TX. Moved by UP to Alamo Junction Rail Park in Elmendorf, Texas on behalf of owner San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum on 1/15/21. More to follow."

MKT #402 came over to KCS some time around 1961. It had become surplus due to cuts made by William Deramus III. He took the 402 with him when he went to take over KCS from his father. I had done some digging into Mallard Transportation a few years ago and was able to find an office located in Tulsa. They’re long since gone though. If I remember correctly, the company was involved in the oil business. There is a photo of the car wearing its KCS paint taken in 1963 at the shops in Pittsburg, KS. It appears in the book Kansas City Southern in the Deramus Era by Marre and Sommers.

So, 402 was not with the rest of MKT's business cars that went to the Georgetown RR back in the '60s?

No. To KCS around 1961. I do not know when they (KCS) discontinued her use. I’d say around the time they purchased former CGW car #100 in 1967. That car was sent to Darby Corp. along with the KaySee (now “Harry S Truman”) for rebuilds around that time. CGW 100 became the “Tolmak”. They also had two others in the fleet, Geraldyne (“survives” in private ownership now) and former car #102 which had been assigned to work trains.

Yes we have a website, albeit a site in need of some serious help and a good webmaster...

Go to www.SARHM.org. I don’t know if the site has been updated with the info or not. Our web guy is slow unfortunately.

Gary R.
SA, TX