Spotted two oddities in the Fall 2003 issue of the SPH&TS SP
Trainline, featuring the Sacramento General Shops:

1. On page 2, there's a December 1960 photo showing passenger cars
being scrapped at Jiboom Street. Lurking among the piles of scrap is
a Class X29 (or proposed 1923 ARA steel boxcar). The car is painted
gray and does not appear to be an immediate write-off from a wreck.
Could this be a wreck pay-off which did time in company service on
the SP before going to the scrapper?

2. On the back cover, there's a broadside shot taken in December
1958 of SP 651596, Class B-50-47, the prototype Hydra-Cushion car,
painted in a one-off red and gray scheme with the "HYDRA-CUSHION FOR
FAST FREIGHT" slogan in white and the DF "Ball and Wing" emblem in
red. This paint scheme was never adopted, but has been copied on
many models (none, of course, matching the prototype).


Ben Hom

Ben Hom said:

2. On the back cover, there's a broadside shot taken in December
1958 of SP 651596, Class B-50-47, the prototype Hydra-Cushion car,
painted in a one-off red and gray scheme with the "HYDRA-CUSHION FOR
FAST FREIGHT" slogan in white and the DF "Ball and Wing" emblem in
red. This paint scheme was never adopted, but has been copied on
many models (none, of course, matching the prototype).

Ben, this is far from the prototype Hydra-Cushion car, though B-50-47 was
an early class built with that device.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 http://www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroads and on Western history

Tony Thompson wrote:
Ben, this is far from the prototype Hydra-Cushion car, though B-50-47
was an early class built with that device.

Misread the caption...

I was surprised that this class dated to 1958 - I always thought the
Hydra-Cushion underframe dated from the early 1960s. When was the
prototype car built?


Ben Hom

Ben Hom asked:

I was surprised that this class dated to 1958 - I always thought the
Hydra-Cushion underframe dated from the early 1960s. When was the
prototype car built?

The SP started development in the early 1950s, and turned it over (with
funding) to Stanford Research Institute (as it was then called) in 1954. By
1955, they were ready for a try-out, and a single car of Class B-50-34 was
rebuilt with the "beta" Hydra-Cushion and reclassified as B-50-34-X (it
became car 650831 after the 1956 renumbering: the real tryout car if not
the protoype). With modifications, the equipment was prepared for
production, first on part of the B-50-39 class of 1956 (using parts built
by SRI), then in 1957 on Class B-50-47 using commercial parts, which brings
us back to the red-gray car.
This was the first commercially successful hydraulic underframe, and at
one point over 40 railroads were using it. However, it had weight and
maintenance disadvantages relative to car-end devices, and eventually was
superseded.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 http://www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroads and on Western history

Tony,

Were ALL member of class B-50-47 outfitted with Hydra-Cushion
underframes, including the T&NO cars? Who was the builder of this
class? Who was the commercial builder of the H/C underframes?

Also, I have class B-50-39 as including a single car, SP 650830. Is
this correct, or were there other cars built to this class? Thanks
for your input on this thread. This is all very important history.

Lee A. Gautreaux - The RailGoat
http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/

With modifications, the equipment was prepared for
production, first on part of the B-50-39 class of 1956 (using parts

built

by SRI), then in 1957 on Class B-50-47 using commercial parts,

which brings

us back to the red-gray car.

Tony Thompson

Were ALL member of class B-50-47 outfitted with Hydra-Cushion
underframes, including the T&NO cars? Who was the builder of this
class? Who was the commercial builder of the H/C underframes?

Yes; SP Equipment Co.; underframes built by Consolidated Western Steel.

Also, I have class B-50-39 as including a single car, SP 650830. Is
this correct, or were there other cars built to this class? Thanks
for your input on this thread. This is all very important history.

Yes, one car. All this will, of course, be covered in excruciating detail
in my volume on...wait for it...box cars...<g>.