Up to last year, the Amtrak service in St. Paul used a station close to our neighborhood. Now Amtrak has returned to the much grander Union Station downtown. While Amtrak was close I frequently drove by the station and sometimes stopped when I saw one or more classic passenger cars waiting on a sidetrack; they were used by an outfit that sets up special railway excursions for enthusiasts. Phil's post a few days ago about that streamlined steam locomotive got me thinking that I'd like to put up some photos of passenger cars that I saw at the old station. The first one to come to mind was "Caritas", built in 1948 as a Pullman car for the Frisco Railroad. Canadian National bought it in 1965 and used it on its transcontinental service till 1983 when the current owner, High Iron Travel, bought it. I'll also put up a view of the NY Central "Portland" for comparison.
Here's Caritas in a full length view.
Caritas seen from the other end and showing placement by the NY Central "Portland" car.
Here's the full length NY Central "Portland". Quite a different style.
The designers really put some style into Caritas.
Photos made with a Yashica GSN (which I no longer own) with commercial processing and scanning.
Bill Delehanty
