Longtime member Bobb Losse, Sr. has consistently contributed his excellent passenger car drawings to the ARHS Facebook page. Recently he featured information and photos on the deluxe coaches, and he graciously agreed to share it here:
There were three groups of deluxe coaches on the Lehigh Valley from 1939 through 1961: Pullman-built 1510-1519 (1939), Sayre rebuilt 1475-1479 (1947-1949) and Sayre rebuilt 1500 (4/48).
The first group was built by Pullman Company, Osgood Bradley in Worcester, MA in two series, 1510-1514 and 1515-1519. The LV engaged inspectors to follow construction and each car was released to the New Haven RR to be delivered to the PRR at Sunnyside yard. The first delivery (1510) arrived 9/28/39 and the last (1519) on 11/9/39. The first five cars seated 92 while the second seated 82. If you check the floor plans you will see that an enlarged ladies’ lounge was added in the second group which reduced the seating capacity. This design of passenger car is typically referred to as an ‘American Flyer car’ referring to the models produced by A.C. Gilbert’s American Flyer line of model trains. American Flyer (located in New Haven CT) chose to model this car as it was located on the New Haven and the label seems to have stuck. This type of car was purchased by a number of railroads not just the LV.
The second group, LV 1475-1479, were rebuilt in the Sayre shops between 1947 and 1949. They were some of the first cars in what would be known as a ‘Modernization’ program. Not every railroad could afford to buy new passenger cars to upgrade their level of service. Often times they resorted to rebuilding older equipment to try to keep pace with the competition. These cars look like streamlined cars to you and I but the railroad referred to them as ‘modernized’ and we will as well. Read through the attached company memo that describes the ‘rebuilding’ process. These cars started life in 1912 as 70’ combines riding on three-axle trucks, 1075-1079. In 1943 the railroad rebuilt them as 70’ single vestibule coaches as part of the war effort. I have seen photos of the combine version of these cars in service on second class trains but have not seen any photos of the 70’ coach version (1943-1947). Four of the five cars rebuilt were the rebuilt coaches and one was still a combine.
The last group is really just one car, LV 1500. It was originally built by Pullman in 1925 as part of a group of 70’ coaches built with two-axle trucks, 1500-1504.
An interesting aside, at some point prior to 1943, steel bars were added over the windows of 1500, a coach identified in company documents as an ‘alien car’. Perhaps it was used to move immigrants from New York Harbor through to the Canadian border. A photo is attached showing 1500 with two 60’ coaches (900 and 969) with bars over the windows.
