Glamour Coaches, The

C&O's Pullman-Standard coaches of 1950 broke new ground in car design

Central to the C&O's huge 1946 order for 284 Pullman-Standard stream-lined passenger cars were 80 lightweight 52-seat coaches embodying a remarkable array of new comforts. Postwar labor unrest and material shortages, however, would contribute to the delayed delivery of these, and many other, passenger cars.

By the time the last of the C&O coaches was delivered in 1950, the 80-car order had been reduced to 67, of which the C&O received 59 (series 1610-1668). The eight cars built but not delivered to the C&O had been sold by P-S to the Denver & Rio Grande Western. The reductions and dispersal of cars from its 1946 P-S order reflected-postwar traffic levels nowhere near as vigorous as early surveys suggested. The P-S cars ultimately delivered to the C&O, however, became the backbone of the road's postwar passenger fleet, earning the admiration of travelers and the envy of the competition.

Whereas traditional railroad coaches, by virtue of their open interior spaces and long, narrow aisles, had often brought to mind the noisy confines of a bowling alley, these new C&O coaches employed an innovative center bulkhead to break each car's interior into two distinct rooms. The separation was achieved throught the use of an offset passageway at the center of the car, forcing passengers into a succesion of 90° turns in order to pass into the other half of the car. While this layout sacrificed the equivalent of four revenue-generating seats, the space was put to use as a location for a water cooler, timetable and magazine racks, and a colorful C&O system map pointing out historical highlights of the railroad's route.

Generously sized lounges (one for men, the other for women) occupied the noisy and rough areas above the trucks. The design of these areas' partitions enhanced the "cocoon" effect of the two 26-seat coach compartments by effectively blocking seated passengers' views of the end doors and vestibule areas. Heywood-Wakefield "Sleepy Hollow" seats ensured a comfortable ride.

A reminder that these luxurious cars were indeed coaches came in the form of linoleum flooring, although even this was laid in a decorative pattern reflecting the cars' contemporary interior design and soft pastel colors.

Esthetically, the C&O's 1946 Pullman-Standard order is perhaps best remembered for its innovative "half-fluted" exterior treatment. The builder's signature double-fluted stainless steel sheathing-strictly a cosmetic touch-was clipped to the car sides below the windows only, departing from the usual practice of applying fluted trim on the letterboard as well. This treatment gave the cars from the 1946 C&O order a distinctive look, and could often be relied on as a spotting feature as many of these cars migrated to subsequent owners. Affiliated at the time with the C&O, the Nickel Plate Road tacked a 25-car allotment of its own onto the 1946 P-S order. While these cars shared their Advisory Mechanical Committee heritage-and their half-fluted exteriors-with the C&O fleet, the NKP cars had one extra row of fluting on their sides, which brought the stainless trim closer to the bottom of the windows.

Pullman-Standard's application of cosmetic stainless steel trim to its cars' Cor-Ten steel sides proved to be a recipe for disaster. Water and cleaning solvents collected behind the stainless sheathing, fostering electrolytic action between the two types of steel. The net effect was severe corrosion, which often went undetected for years behind the shiny stainless facade. This inherent design flaw spelled an early end for many P-S lightweight cars throughout the country (unlike Budd equipment, with was constructed of stainless steel throughout). Where corrosion was discovered early, removal of the stainless steel fluting could slow the destruction of the cars' Cor-Ten girder sheets. In their later years, beginning about 1967, many of the C&O's 1600-series coaches thus lost their stainless fluting in favor of smooth, gray-painted lower sides.

The generous windows were another reliable spotting feature of these AMC cars, since they were much taller than standard. Condensation on these "wide-view picture windows," as the C&O's publicity staff promoted them, was kept in check by a heated air curtain that flowed across the cars' interior glazing.

Passage from car to car-with or without bulky luggage in hand-was simplified with the introduction of air-assisted sliding end doors activated by pressing a large pad.

Innovative controls were also found in these coaches' restrooms, where lavatory faucets were activated not by the usual handles, but rather with hygenic foot pedals.

The new coaches quickly became fixtures on the C&O's premier trains-the George Washington, the Sportsman, and the FFV-and were also employed on former Pere Marquette routes and on many of the C&O timetable's lesser lights.

Their service in Michigan led to two cars, Nos. 1610 and 1611, being rebuilt as coach-diners. In this conversion, one 26-seat coach section in each car was replaced by a 22-seat dining room, with the former men's lounge becoming a compact kitchen. To accommodate the displaced male passengers, the women's lounge was partitioned for double duty. The conversions were intended to provide more cost-effective meal service on Detroit-Grand Rapids Pere Marquette runs than was possible using the existing ex-PM dining cars. The coach-diners also ran in Newport News-Charlottesville service.

By the late 1950s, the C&O had more lightweight equipment than it needed. When the C&O acquired three Budd Rail Diesel Cars from Chicago & North Western in 1957, it exchanged coaches 1664-1666 for the RDCs. The three ex-C&O coaches didn't last long on the C&NW, migrating in 1961 to Southern Pacific. Ten more C&O coaches (1656-1663, 1667-1668) were sold to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1958. These cars went to Seaboard Coast Line through merger in 1967 and, like a number of former C&O lightweights, survived to see Amtrak service.

Along with many C&O lightweight sleeping cars, the 1600-series P-S coaches were also used on Baltimore & Ohio trains after 1967. In order to operate over B&O routes, however, the springs in the C&O cars' trucks had to be replaced with B&O-specified "semi-hard springs." Fifteen C&O cars (Nos. 1638-1655) were resprung.

Two coaches, Nos. 1627 and 1636, saw special service and wore a commemorative paint scheme while leased to the High Iron Company in 1969. These cars ran in the Golden Spike Centennial Limited of May 1969 and retained the train's powder blue and yellow colors until 1972, even after they had passed from regular C&O operation and into Amtrak service.

Through the 1960s and right up until Amtrak's creation on May 1, 1971, the 1600-series cars carried the vast majority of Chesapeake & Ohio coach passengers. By that time most had lost their stainless fluting, and wore a simplified lettering arrangement. Gone was the CHESAPEAKE & OHIO letterboard script, with a "C&O For Progress" monogram at each end of the window band the only clue to ownership.

Amtrak acquired eight of the C&O's remaining 23 Pullman-Standard coaches, reuniting them with the ten cars sold by C&O to Seaboard m 1958.

Copyright Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, Inc. Nov 2003
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