Southern Pacific's Pullman and ACF gallery cars were retired long before any of Metra's similar Pullman and St. Louis cars, and the ones that weren't scrapped ended up in all kinds of specialized passenger services with I think not a single one preserved as a commuter car. A long time ago someone on this forum mentioned that retired Metra cars would probably end up in a similar situation. I couldn't find an appropriate thread to continue this discussion.
I was looking at Google maps around San Diego, and across the fence I noticed some long railroad cars with the two staggered rooftop exhaust ports that Metra cars have. Using the street view I confirmed that there are at least four Pullman gallery cars from Metra in Tijuana. If you do some Google digging they are for a tourist or party train on the Baja peninsula.
Aerial:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=3 ... 4&t=h&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Street View:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=3 ... 68,,0,0.38" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
When they were retired, dozens of the cars were sold to railroad equipment "brokers". I think those brokers were attempting to sell or lease them in to other commuter services, but there was pretty much no demand for cars that old, and they sat for a decade or more. The ones that did end up in commuter service (MARC, VRE, and Music City Star) were transferred directly to them from Metra.
The "brokers" probably had to face getting rid of the cars for whatever they could get, rather than continue to pay for storage while the cars deteriorated, so small groups have been sold to many different tourist service operators or donated to museums as well as some being scrapped. There's so many outfits I have found out about online, I can't recall some of them. So maybe this thread can be used to keep track in case anyone is interested. There is a handful of cars other than the ones IRM has that have been repainted as C&NW cars.
Some of the cars that were stored in Joliet for a long time have been sold to an excursion line in Quebec. They were modified as single level dining cars with high ceilings and windows, the first I know of to be reused in the way that most of the "surviving" SP cars have been.
http://www.tourisme-charlevoix.com/fr/a ... Charlevoix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I was looking at Google maps around San Diego, and across the fence I noticed some long railroad cars with the two staggered rooftop exhaust ports that Metra cars have. Using the street view I confirmed that there are at least four Pullman gallery cars from Metra in Tijuana. If you do some Google digging they are for a tourist or party train on the Baja peninsula.
Aerial:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=3 ... 4&t=h&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Street View:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=3 ... 68,,0,0.38" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
When they were retired, dozens of the cars were sold to railroad equipment "brokers". I think those brokers were attempting to sell or lease them in to other commuter services, but there was pretty much no demand for cars that old, and they sat for a decade or more. The ones that did end up in commuter service (MARC, VRE, and Music City Star) were transferred directly to them from Metra.
The "brokers" probably had to face getting rid of the cars for whatever they could get, rather than continue to pay for storage while the cars deteriorated, so small groups have been sold to many different tourist service operators or donated to museums as well as some being scrapped. There's so many outfits I have found out about online, I can't recall some of them. So maybe this thread can be used to keep track in case anyone is interested. There is a handful of cars other than the ones IRM has that have been repainted as C&NW cars.
Some of the cars that were stored in Joliet for a long time have been sold to an excursion line in Quebec. They were modified as single level dining cars with high ceilings and windows, the first I know of to be reused in the way that most of the "surviving" SP cars have been.
http://www.tourisme-charlevoix.com/fr/a ... Charlevoix" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
