---In STMFC@..., wrote:

 I also have vague memories that acetylene gas was also used for lighting here in the UK so it may also have some use in US passenger car lighting.

Does anyone know what the actual gas was that passenger cars used, and which may well have been transported by the car in the photo. 

Barry Bennett

Coventry, England.

While acetylene lighting equipment was sold for railroad car use in the US, the dominant player was Pintsch gas, made from naphtha. The two systems were not compatible, so roads tended to standardize on one or the other. Here is a link to a Scineticic American article about the production of Pintsch gas:

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/SDGAS.Html

Dennis Storzek