I am trying to research the background of a US Army troop train car, and hitting a bit of a dead end in finding anything. The car is lettered #6707, and marked "TOOL CAR" on one side. The reporting marks show it as having been built in 1943.

The car currently resides at the North Carolina Railroad Museum (New Hope Valley Railway) in Bonsal, NC. The outside is scheduled for restoration soon, and the interior houses museum exhibits and the museum store.

An interesting feature of the car are two bullet holes high up on one side, showing impact from the inside of the car to the outside. The holes are patched on the inside, but clearly visible on the outside.

I have tried Google and some other sources, but so far have not found much at all. Unfortunately, when one does searches on such things, one tends to find more about World War II in general than anything specific on existing troop train cars. Any help at all would be appreciated.

Bob Crowley
Corporate Secretary
East Carolina Chapter, NRHS
North Carolina Railroad Museum

Bob:

Good luck! We have a WWII Troop Sleeper at our museum, which houses exhibits including three sets of triple bunks. Our car was originally sold to the Wabash Railroad which put it into MofW service. The car then passed into the hands of the Norfolk & Western and eventually, of course, Norfolk Southern. The car was donated to HVRM many years ago along with five other cars which were located at that time in Frankfort, Indiana. Try as we might, we never could locate any number anywhere on the car that might tell us its original Pullman Company number. When restored, the car was given its coat of Pullman Green paint and Pullman lettering and the number 7000. Not the number I would have given it, but the musuem painter just used that number which was the number of the first Troop Sleeper built.

I hope you have better luck Bob, than we did in finding the history of your car.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Please let us know if you find asything also.

http://www.psrm.org/roster/passenger/gu ... index.html

Jim

Bob,
If you get the chance, take a trip up to Ft. Eustis - I was there recently and found the staff very helpful and accommodating.
As an aside - if anyone has any info on WWII Hospital Train cars, keep me in mind - thanks!
Melanie

There are four different types of car which would fall under "troop train" car. these are the box car based sleeper and kitchen cars, the hospital ward cars, and the hospital train baggage/kitchen cars. Knowing which type of car and what railroad it came from would make tracing the history much easier.

Now, the bullet holes going out of the car must have an interesting story behind them.

Mike Allen

Oh, I quite agree, Mike, and I wish I had that information as a starting point. All I can say is it does not appear to have ever been a kitchen car since we have never found any trace of vents or stacks for a stove. It could have been some sort of bunk car, but the marking of "TOOL CAR" on one side seems to indicate some other purpose. It also does not appear to have come from any particular common carrier railroad, but was purpose-built for the US Army Transportation Corps in 1943. I think a trip to Ft. Eustice is in the future.



We think so as well, but the details of the story are mere speculation at this point. They seem to run straight out from the inside-out, but are about seven or so feet above the floor of the car on the inside, so however they were made, the weapon was at least that far above the floor. The two holes are almost exactly the same level, but spaced about two and a half feet apart. The scenario we find most plausible involves a semi-automatic weapon lying on an upper bunk, discharging two shots with the recoil of the first shot causing the weapon to move, but that is just a guess at best. This may remain just another unsolved mystery.

You might also want to contact SRI in Owosso, Michigan. They have an ex-troop sleeper which was later used as baggage car and then MofW car for the Pere Marquette/ Chesapeake & Ohio. The end of it can be seen in the left hand side of this photo of #75 from their website:



TJG

The B&O has a restored one. STEA has an unrestored one (ex DL&W MOW). Is there a total list somewhere?

Joshua

At the IRM Pullman Library we cannot help you on the tool car but perhaps this is appropriate to reply to the others on US Army orders to the Pullman Company and its subsidiaries. I keep finding more on this topic. About hospital trains, Osgood Bradley made one complete hospital train. We have the drawings for that train including the general drawings for each car. About troop sleepers, we have some of the construction drawings including the general drawing for each of the two types made at Michigan City. In addition we have a very complete photograph file of the cars in all stages of testing and construction, inside and out. I had sent one CD to the B&O Railroad Museum to help in the minutiae of lettering their car down to the trucks. With regard to freight cars, we have many drawings for WWI & WWII including the 4-wheel Standard Steel car referred to for the museum in the Netherlands posted in this forum. I am waiting to hear back from them. So we welcome inquiries as always. You never know what we might have! For the ACF cars, I would check with the Museum of Transport and the other libraries and museums in the St Louis area, especially Ed Hawkins (RPC) who is always very informed on the subject.
Sincerely, Ted Anderson

For information on two hospital cars, take a look at http://www.sdrm.org/roster/passenger/ss-350/index.html. For the second car, go back to"roster" and look at "Sightseer #351.

Jim Baker, Steam Foreman, PSRMA

Ted,

Did Pullman build the troop kitchen cars? We have one in Gaithersburg MD.

Wesley

Our Hospital Kitchen Car was built by ACF, but apparantly operated by Pullman. See http://www.sdrm.org/roster/passenger/gu ... index.html

Jim Baker, Steam Foreman, PSRMA