The Arizona Railway Museum, in Chandler, took delivery of the coaches from a Union Pacific local freight on Dec. 26. They were donated by their most recent owner, whom museum officials decline to name.
The two cars are former AT&SF 72-seat coach No. 708, built by Budd in 1956 for the Santa Fe’s El Capitan and later Amtrak coach 9948 and then 39948; and AT&SF 68-seat transition (low-level to high-level stairs) dorm-coach No. 543, built by Budd in 1964 for the Santa Fe’s San Francisco Chief, and later Amtrak 9917 and coach-dorm 39917.
Both donated cars were part of a set of five Santa Fe hi-levels later acquired by the Cincinnati Railway Co. excursion charter company, based for a time at the Indiana & Ohio Railroad in Ohio.
Museum officials reported that the cars are in good condition, mostly intact and missing only a few pieces that are likely already in the museum’s parts inventory. Plans are to restore the cars into original Santa Fe appearance, both inside and out. Although the cars will be undergoing restoration by volunteers as time permits, plans are to have the cars available for public inspection at the Museum’s “Arizona Railway Day 2020” annual fundraiser on Feb. 29, 2020.
I wonder if I rode I the coach many years ago on Amtrak. The high level coaches were arguably more comfortable than Superliners.
I recall fully mechanical toilets that allowed use even when Head End Power failed (which it did a lot in the late 80s when preventive maintenance stopped) and the rest of the Superliner equipped train had no operable toilets…
Gentlemen:
Thanks to Mister Galich I found them on-line. They have been rather thoroughly stripped and vandalized, something that surprises me not considering they are that close to the border.
Oh, well…
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Please deflate your shoes.
@John Galich: Yes. Most of the brass has been stripped off as well as the copper in the electrical boxes. The airpipes are missing on most of them.
“Those are on the Carrizo Gorge Railway which has a fascinating history. The Metra cars have been there since at least 2007. They are, in order: 7773, 7779, 8728, 7774, 7784. The reason they are there is a mystery, but there was speculation that they were for a commuter train between Tijuana and Tecate, Mexico, or for a tourist train through the gorge. The cars derailed in 2015 in a suspicious incident. Over the next few years they became heavily covered in graffiti as their location became more widely publicized on the Internet. In 2018 they were rerailed as Baja Rail works to rebuild the line.”
These ex-Metra cars purported to be rotting away in the California desert … how does one go about getting one’s hands on one?
Anna Harding: I didn’t know anything about these Metra cars either, so I did a little sleuthing. Here’s a link with some background as to how they wound up there:
https://chitransit.org/topic/4239-ex-cnw-pullman-rta-cars-in-california/
They are ex-C&NW Pullman Standard cars and look to be in very sad shape.
John Galich
Now if someone could find a home for all of those former Metra gallery cars sitting in the California desert. They are being disassembled 1 part at a time by metal hunters.
Nice to hear about this. One small item to note is that the dormitory space in former AT&SF #543 was added by Amtrak. On the Santa Fe both of these cars were chair cars.
Near the main campus of Texas A&M University in College Station are ex-Santa Fe Hi-Level chair cars arranged in a simulated derailment for the training of first responders. These cars are in different overturned positions off track and weathered in their Phase I Amtrak paint scheme. Some single-level passenger cars from Amtrak’s Heritage Fleet were on site as well.
At least some of these cars may have been from actual train wrecks based on damaged surfaces.
Glad to see that a pair of these Ex Santa Fe Hi level Coaches have found a Museum home, as there seems to be a lot of these Ex Santa Fe Hi level Coaches stored here and there in private ownership and none seem to be in Museums until now. Congrats Arizona Railway Museum on acquiring these 2 Coaches.