According to Richard Hendrickson: “The first 200 FE-24s were delivered with steam and signal lines, marker lamp brackets, and special paint jobs for passenger express service.…The Santa Fe’s passenger-equipped FE-24s numbered 10000-10199 had Allied Full Cushion pedestal trucks and were painted coach green (dark olive) with black roofs and underbodies. Stenciling was Dulux gold and included the system maps and slogans that were then being applied to all of the Santa Fe’s box, automobile, and refrigerator cars….The other 300 FE-24s numbered 10200-10499 were assigned to general merchandise service and painted the usual freight scheme… When the volume of express shipments grew dramatically after…WWI, the Santa Fe installed passenger equipment on another hundred FE-24s in 1943 and assigned them to express service. Shortly afterward, all of the FE-24 express cars were given passenger car numbers in the 4100-4399 series, leaving on the FE-24s numbered 10300-10499 in the freight car pool. Also as they were repainted, the express cars lost their maps and slogans. About the same time, there was a great flurry of truck swapping among the FE-24s. It had been found that the Allied Full Cushion trucks, though smoother riding than conventional freight trucks, were prone to derailment. When the truck manufacturer was unable to cure this problem, the Santa Fe equipped the express service FE-24s with Barber S-2 Stabilized freight trucks removed from freight service FE-24s, supplemented with some new ASF A-3 Ride Control trucks. The Allied trucks removed from the express car fleet were then installed on FE-24s in the freight car fleet. When derailment problems with Allied trucks persisted even at freight train speeds, they were taken out of service entirely in the late 1940s and were banned by the AAR in interchange service by the mid-1950s…. Four different trucks were installed on four express service FE-24s in the late 1940s: 4108 had Keystone trucks, 4197 had Chrysler FR-5-D trucks, 4230 had LFM trucks, and 4281 had Scullin trucks. None of these trucks performed significantly better than the Barber and ASF freight trucks to justify their added expense and all of the FE-24s in both express and freight service eventually ended up rolling on Barber S-2 and ASF A-3 freight trucks with built in bolster snubbers. Then in the mid-1960s express FE-24s in the 4100-4178 series were equipped with roller bearing trucks.”

 

 

J. Stephen Sandifer