Lightweight twin door commuter coaches from PS?

[atlpete]

-Single level cars with distinctive pair of vestibules located towards the center of each half of the car's length like a Metropolitan or subway car, Does anyone know the disposition of this unique fleet, end of service, any survivors etc, would be surprised if they made it to Metra. I would think the second batch of bi-levels would have killed off the remaining Al Capone coaches, but I can't recall seeing anything about the demise of these uniquely Rock Island cars.

[Tadman]

Here's what I know:
They were called Cattle Cars, built around 1949 by Pullman-Standard, and were a "one-level gallery car" if you will. They served as somewhat of a test-bed for P-S's first gallery cars.

Originally painted dark green like the Jesse James cars, they were eventually put in the red/yellow scheme of the sixties.

I'm not quite clear why they were 86'd so much faster than the galleries, other than the fact they didn't hold as many people per footprint as the galleries. I don't think they made it much past 1980, if at all. Also, the Rock may have run them into the ground due to being broke as a joke.

[SlowFreight]

IIRC, they wouldn't have made it past about 1977. They were basically worn out by the time RTA came around--I remember something about floors falling out of them--and the Rock could only field about enough for one trainset. Some days, they couldn't even do that many. I believe all of them went to the torch as fast as RTA could get away with it. Pictures of them are very hard to come by. The clearest one I saw involved them being pulled by C&IM steam, with no explanation as to why.

[atlpete]

Thanks guys, so 1977 seems to be the vanishing point for them. I had no idea that they fell into such bad repair, however given the RI's situation I shouldn't be surprised. On a related note I have a book on the RI passenger service that shows them "moonlighting" in service on trains to Peoria and the Quad Cities,