ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY
Business Car No. 405 |
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This car is known as the "Superintendent's car." It
was assigned to a Santa Fe Division Superintendent who used it to inspect the
railroad and conduct business with shippers, civic leaders, and work gangs in
his assigned division.
The car was built in 1927 and was used throughout the
Santa Fe system until its retirement in 1966. It has a lounge, two bedrooms,
bathroom, dining/office room, a porter's room, and kitchen. When traveling, the
car staff included a male secretary who was kept busy working at a typewriter.
After retirement, the car
passed through several owners, then was donated by the Temple Railroad &
Heritage Museum of Texas to the Arizona Railway Museum in 2008.
Santa Fe business car No. 405
was built by the Pullman Company as one of 18 cars in the fourth order of
business cars for division superintendents. These were built as heavyweight,
all-steel cars in lot number 4977 to plan number 7027, with delivery in January
1927. Their internal length is 52 feet and their external length over end sills
is 58 feet 10 inches.
This was the second Santa Fe business car to carry the
number 405. The first was converted from Santa Fe 34-foot caboose No. 386 built
in 1893. It was eventually dismantled at the Topeka Shops in September 1925.
The superintendent’s cars were
originally painted standard green with black roofs, but in later years their
roofs were painted aluminum to reflect the heat, and this one was even painted
for a while with a silver/shadowline treatment along the sides to help "blend
in" while traveling on modern passenger trains.
The car received a number of
modifications during its years of service. When built the car had a Vapor
Heating Company’s system for generating steam heat when running behind a freight
train. It used the steam lines when coupled to a passenger train. The master
bedroom has a full lower bed and a fold-down upper. The second bedroom is
configured as a section with a slide-together lower bed and fold-down upper. The
lounge couch also converts to a bed for additional sleeping accommodations. As
built, the car's two bedrooms had a toilet and fold-down sink.
The biggest changes came
during the 1957 modification. These included addition of air conditioning,
removal of the bedroom toilets but maintaining the sinks, changing from wood
stove to propane, and the addition of a propane water heater. The vestibule door
was removed and in that area a refrigerator/freezer assembly was installed, and
a side loading door was implemented in the kitchen hallway.
After system-wide service,
this car served in La Junta, Colorado, and on October 25, 1968 was sold at
auction to Texas Tank Car Works in San Angelo, Texas. It was later sold to
private owner Louis Perry and was moved to Temple, Texas.
In February 2000 vandals
started a fire in bedroom "A" which could have destroyed the car. Fast action by
the Temple fire department saved it. Mr. Perry later donated the car to the
Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum, but the museum's switches had been removed
so there was no way to move the car onto their tracks. They decided the best
place to preserve and display it was to donate it to the Arizona Railway Museum,
and it was delivered to the museum on May 16, 2008.
The car's interior has been
restored to its 1957 appearance, while the exterior has been restored closer to
its as-built condition.