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Passenger Cars of the New Haven Railroad by David R Sweetland & Robert A Liljest
Passenger Cars of the New Haven Railroad by David R Sweetland & Robert A Liljestrand
Soft Cover Reflections from the lights on some photos.
48 pages Indexed
Copyright ??
CONTENTS
Introduction4
Wooden Coaches6
Steel Coaches10
Club Cars20
Parlor Cars21
Sleepers25
Wooden Diners2b
Heavyweight Diners30
Lightweight Diners32
Grill Cars33
Combines35
Observations37
Business Cars39
Rpo-Baggage Ears40
Baggage Cars42
Work Cars45
INTRODUCTION
A large percentage of the gross revenue for the New Haven was generated by passenger service especially from Shore Line trains. Coming out of the Great Depression, the New Haven was in need of new coaches for the Shore Line. The Pullman-Standard Company had designed a new lightweight coach that later became famous by the toy train manufacturer American Flyer when the cars were reproduced in O gauge. Fifty cars were ordered from Pullman-Standard in 1934. Lot number W12500 included New Haven cars #8200-8249, built between December 1934 and February 1935 at the Osgood-Bradley plant in Worcester, MA. These eighty-four seat cars had ten large side windows per side and measured eighty-four feet, six and one-quarter inches long over buffers.
Successful, the New Haven returned for twenty more (lot W6495) in October 1936 numbered 8250-8269 seating eighty-four. These were followed by thirty, (lot W6496) #8270-8299, ninety-two seat, eleven side-window coaches in October 1937 and fifty, (lot W6518) #83008349 ninety-two seat, eleven side-window coaches in October 1937. Lot W6519, an order placed by the New Haven at the same time, was for five grill cars, #5100-5104, with seating for fifty-three at both ends and a kitchen with serving counter in the middle of the car. In 1952, these five cars were rebuilt to ninety-two-seat coaches after installing vestibules and washrooms on the ends and renumbering them #8370-8374. New Haven's last group of "American Flyer" coaches was lot W6557 delivered by Pullman-Standard from the Worcester plant in September 1938. Two years later, the New Haven shops at Readville started rebuilding these ten-window cars with a smoking compartment seating sixteen and
leaving seating for sixty-four in the coach section. New Haven's October 1938 delivery was twenty #8350-8369 ninety-two-seat, eleven-window coaches, built under lot W6558. Thus between December 1934 and October 1938, the New Haven obtained a sizeable fleet of 205 "American Flyer" lightweight cars, by far the largest in the Nation.
After the ending of hostilities in World War II, the New Haven went back to Pullman-Standard for 103 new sixty-four-seat coaches with a fourteen-seat smoking lounge. Delivered under lot W6788, the cars were built in 1947-1948 to a refined "American Flyer" design with stainless steel corrugations added to the sides. Also included in this large post-war order were twenty baggage-buffet-lounge cars, #200-205, with a thirty-one-foot long lounge section, #206-209 with a thirty-two-seat lounge and ten, #210-219, with a fourteen-seat parlor and eleven-seat lounge. Several of these cars (#204209) were in 1952 and 1953 modified as to seating arrangements and lost their baggage section.
The next section of this massive 207-car order with Pullman-Standard were twenty-five parlor cars, twelve (#300-311) with thirty-six rotating seats and thirteen (#312-324) with fifty-two seats, all delivered in 1948. Next were parlor-lounge cars #400-404, with thirty-eight seats in the parlor section and fourteen seats in the smoking lounge. The 1949 delivery included diners #900-909, grill cars #950-964 and observations #475-476, all of the refined "American Flyer" design.
In October 1946, the New Haven ordered from Pullman-Standard twenty-seven fourteen-roomette, four double-bedroom sleepers. Delivered in December 1949 and January 1950 under lot 6822 plan 4159, sleepers #500-526 all had names, but were not of the "American Flyer" design. In order to completely eliminate heavyweight sleepers from overnight trains like the OWL, New Haven placed another order with Pullman-Standard for two types of sleepers in March 1953. Lot W6941, plan 4193, included four six-bedroom-buffet-lounge cars, #550-553, delivered in January 1955 and lot W6942, plan 4194, for eleven six-section, four-bedroom, six-roomette sleeping cars, #527-537, delivered between November 1954 and January 1955. Both the Boston & Maine (four cars) and Bangor & Aroostook (two cars) were added to the New Haven group being built at the Worcester plant of Pullman-Standard.
New Haven's modernization plan was not only limited to passenger cars, but also included self-propelled equipment. Starting in October 1951, Mack delivered one type 1 FCD car, #10, a twenty-one ton rail motor-car looking like a Mack bus. After successfully entering Boston-Blackstone service, the New Haven ordered nine more type II FCD cars, #11-19, for delivery in July and August 1954. The type II had center entrances, PCC type trucks and back-to-back MU operation. Unfortunately the management changed on the New Haven in 1954 and all but #12 were stored upon delivery. Number 12 performed "Little Shore Liner" service between Worcester and Providence until the end of 1956. The next self-propelled units on New Haven's shopping list were Rail Diesel Cars from the Budd Company. In 1951, the NH ordered RDC1's #20-27 and RDC-2s #120-121. Delivered in February-May 1952, the cars were an immediate success, especially on the Boston-Providence local runs. Immediately the New Haven placed a second order for 1953 delivery. RDC-ls #28-48 arrived in January-March, RDC-3s #125-130 in January-May and RDC-4s #135-137 in May and June, creating a forty-unit RDC fleet.
To improve commuting conditions for the west end passengers and to eliminate the oldest steel MUs, the New Haven ordered in October 1952, eighty-nine 120-seat double-ended MUs, #4400-4488, lot 6916 plan W52426, seven MU-combines, #4670-4676, seating ninety-two and four MU club cars #5110-5113, all delivered from the Worcester plant between April and August 1954. Each car had two 100hp Westinghouse traction motors and rode on four-wheel (M41-BHRV) trucks with SKF roller bearings.
New Haven's last fling with new passenger cars was under the leadership of Patrick B. McGinnis. In March 1955, the New Haven's Board of Directors authorized the purchase of a lightweight ACF Talgo Train later powered by two FM Speed Merchant, 1750hp locomotives, one at each end. At the same time, the Board ordered a Pullman-Standard Train X with Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton locomotives at each end. The third train, ordered in May 1955 was a set of modified Budd RDCs. The ACF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS train had five three-unit cars each riding on a two-wheel truck at each end and Pullman's DAN'L WEBSTER Train X had four semi-permanently-coupled cars with a vestibule, plus one car without a vestibule. The Budd ROGER WILLIAMS train had six modified RDC cars with the end units designed with a cab and the four center units built like twin-engined RDC-9 units. The fling with lightweight trains only lasted one year, with the JOHN QUINCY ADAMS and DAN'L WEBSTER stored in June 1958, and the ROGER WILLIAMS RDCs operated with other standard RDC cars in local service. From that time, it was a downhill slide for New Haven's passenger service until its merger into Penn Central in 1969.
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