Overview, Generator Lift, Wiring, and More! - Power Car Ep. 3 

You are correct about the striping. This car had HEP installed by 1979, but it still retained the double window doors. However, in the 2000s Amtrak rebuilt the car into a "heavy security baggage car" (or something along those lines). They took out the original doors and replaced them with windowless, heavy duty doors. These are what were in the car when we acquired it from Amtrak. They were very bulky and stiff; some were nearly impossible to open. These were immediately removed and we have been fabricating new doors. Thank you so much for your interest in the project!

Thanks, I didn't know Amtrak applied "windowless" doors to some of these baggage cars. I know when these cars were built for the AT&SF, these cars had the GSC-41-CDO type trucks with an outside "swing hanger" and disk brakes. However, the Santa Fe decided to "swap" trucks and both the 1953, as well as the 1957 built cars were given the GSC-41-N-11 type trucks, with an inside swing hanger and clasp brakes. the models of these HO baggage cars that I have are from Walthers mostly, (I have a few Model Power versions of these also) and I've done a "truck swapping" project with them. I gave them the appropriate trucks these cars had, as per Proto Type photos I've come across shown them having. I remember seeing these stainless steel baggage cars all over the Amtrak system, including ex AT&SF 46 seat "El Capitan" leg rest coaches on many single level long distance trains, including the City of New Orleans back in the 1990's, (Amtrak train #'s 58 and 59) until the train was given bilevel "Superliner" coaches and sleepers etc. This train used to have an ex Santa Fe "lunch counter diner" and an ex Northern Pacific "bubble top" dome coach. The GE P40 Genesis locomotives replaced the EMD F40PH's, this train used to have. I've been into trains since the 1980's and have dozens upon dozens of trains, mostly HO scale and some Lionel and other "Three Rail" trains I've collected for 35+ years. Some Lionel trains I have are "Post War" era and still in running condition. God bless. @@austinsteamtrainassociation

Interesting. I wonder if the skirting was removed at the same time the trucks were replaced.

I'm unsure of the precise time when the "skirting" was removed from these ex AT&SF baggage cars. However, I would venture to say that these cars retained their skirting well into the Amtrak era. As I did come across some prototype photos from the early '70s a while back, showing that these cars wore the Amtrak "Phase I" scheme and still had their skirting. It's likely that the skirting was removed when Amtrak converted these cars to HEP, as they were steam heated when Amtrak first acquired these cars from AT&SF in 1971. When Amtrak bought a lot of stainless steel cars from the Santa Fe, Amtrak did purchase some prewar streamliners. And the reason for this was, the Santa Fe wanted to sell off a lot of their passenger cars to Amtrak as a "package deal". (The Santa Fe did retain a lot of their passenger equipment for "office car specials" and so to did a lot of other railroads after they relinquished their premiere trains to Amtrak.) And so consequently, Amtrak did purchase prewar cars, including some baggage cars. These cars were built in the late 1930's / early '40s and had the GSC-41-E type trucks, some with "friction bearings", others with roller bearings. However, some of these prewar cars did receive the GSC-41-CDO type trucks, as a "post war" modification. There were also a lot of diner cars that were from the prewar era as well that Amtrak purchased from the Santa Fe. However, I don't think that any of these prewar cars ever received a conversion to HEP and none of them ever wore the "Phase III" striping that other Heritage Fleet cars wore. Amtrak retired the last of their steam heated train cars in the early 1980s, after the Silver Meteor / Silver Star became HEP trains. This was because of a strike at one of the car manufacturers. (I think it was at the Budd Company) New York to Florida trains were the last long distance Non HEP trains still pulled with EMD SDP40F locomotives. (SDP40F's were cowl bodied SD40-2 freight locomotives geared for passenger operations and had a cowl body like the FP45's. Derailment problems with the SDP40F's led Amtrak to retiring the last of these units in 1985 and Amtrak "adopted" the F40PH's in their place.) As the Budd built "Amfleet II" coaches and lounges were delivered to Amtrak between 1981 - '82, Amtrak became an all HEP railroad. And the Silver Meteor / Silver Star were given these newer cars, along with ex Santa Fe and Union Pacific 10-6 sleepers that were converted to HEP, along with former B&O "Duplex sleepers". (24 Roomete 8 double bedroom sleepers Amtrak called the "Economy Sleeper") These trains also had an ex Santa Fe baggage car and a baggage dormitory car that were built from ex US Army "Hospital" cars, built by the Saint Louis Car Company in the early 1950's. These Florida trains were often times very lengthy, sometimes being more than 10 cars long. Back in the early 2000's, Walthers released a model of these ex Santa Fe baggage cars in HO wearing the Amtrak Phase I scheme, along with the as delivered skirting. These were based on the 1953 built cars. @@austinsteamtrainassociation