The most
comprehensive book on Southern Pacific Pullman sleepers will soon be available.
See info @ Southern Pacific Historical and Technical
Society
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THE REBUILDS During the late 1920's Pullman constructed many cars with
private rooms instead of the conventional section and they had proved to be
very popular. In the 1930's a major upgrade program began to rebuild many of
the early steel cars built from 1910 to 1920 into cars with private rooms. The
bulk of the cars were three types: 10-1-2, 12-1-1 and 12-1. By removing the
drawingrooms, compartments or one or more sections, different configurations
were developed:
- 12 Section - 2 Double
Bedrooms
- 10 Section - 3 Double
Bedrooms
- 8 Section - 5 Double
Bedrooms
- 8 Section - 4 Double
Bedrooms
- 8 Section - 1 Compartment -
3 Double Bedrooms
- 6 Section - 6 Double
Bedrooms
THE
8-5's 124 cars were
rebuilt to the 8 Section - 5 Double bedroom configuration. 1934 - 1936 and
1940. The first 21 were named in the Garden series, the last 103 in the
Clover series.
The 12-1-1 and 10-1-2 cars had four sections, the
rest room, vestibule and all rooms removed from the same end. The rest room was
moved into the vestibule and five double bedrooms (A,B,C,D,& E) were
constructed at that end.
12 -1 cars like Bernadotte were built with
larger rest rooms instead of the extra room. During the rebuild, the drawing
room, its bathroom and two sections were removed and replaced with two double
bedrooms (Rooms D & E). At the opposite end the vestibule and two sections
were removed. The mens rest room was moved into the former vestibule area and
three double bedrooms (Rooms A,B & C) constructed. |
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Home > Richmond shops
> Car Records >Clover Colony
Southern
Pacific - Clover Colony
Clover Colony has been restored and operates
today at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.
Clover Colony was rebuilt to plan 4036H from
12 section - 1 Drawing room Bernadotte and released from Pullmans'
Calumet shops August 16, 1940.
Bernadotte was one of 100 12-1 cars built to
plan 2410F in Lot 4574, and one of 300 12-1's added to the Pullman pool in
1920.
| Bernadotte |
Built:
9/2/20 |
Plan:
2410F |
Lot#:
4574 |
Rebuilt:
8/16/40 |
Bernadotte was shopped exclusively at the
Richmond shops up to the date of it's rebuild to Clover Colony in 1940.
Cars were generally shopped in the zones they were operated in, so it might be
safe to say Bernadotte spent most if not all of its' career operating on
western trains.
| SHOP |
Shop Sequence |
CLASS REPAIR |
DATE IN |
DATE OUT |
RECORD |
| Richmond |
1 |
M |
3/8/22 |
3/22/22 |
55847 |
| Richmond |
2 |
M |
2/23/23 |
3/8/23 |
59478 |
| Richmond |
3 |
M |
8/13/24 |
8/22/24 |
67100 |
| Richmond |
4 |
SAV |
12/8/24 |
12/23/24 |
68832 |
| Richmond |
5 |
M |
1/14/26 |
1/27/26 |
74068 |
| Richmond |
6 |
M |
3/31/27 |
4/14/27 |
80128 |
| Richmond |
7 |
M |
10/5/28 |
10/19/28 |
87021 |
| Richmond |
8 |
M |
6/19/30 |
7/3/30 |
94448 |
| Richmond |
9 |
M |
3/25/32 |
3/25/32 |
1993 |
| Richmond |
10 |
LM |
5/14/32 |
5/24/32 |
2646 |
| Richmond |
11 |
LMSB |
4/11/34 |
4/26/34 |
9322 |
| Richmond |
12 |
S |
4/30/36 |
4/30/36 |
17033 |
| Richmond |
13 |
M |
9/10/36 |
9/25/36 |
17490 |
| Richmond |
14 |
M |
12/6/38 |
12/23/38 |
24261 |
| Calumet |
15 |
GR |
6/5/40 |
8/16/40 |
28534 |
The great depression idled many of the pool cars,
but Pullman had been through depression before and used the time to upgrade
many of the early steel cars. Air conditioning systems had been developed in
the late 1920s' and thousands of Pullman sleepers had A/C applied in the mid
thirties.Bernadotte received the Pullman Mechanical Brine system at
Richmond in September of 1936.
Bernadotte entered Pullmans Calumet shops in
June of 1940. During the rebuild, the drawing room, its bathroom and two
sections were removed and replaced with two double bedrooms (Rooms D & E).
At the opposite end the vestibule and two sections were removed. The mens rest
room was moved into the former vestibule area and three double bedrooms (Rooms
A,B & C) constructed. The car in this new floorplan of eight sections and
five double bedrooms was released from Calumet in August with a new name,
Clover Colony. 
When
rebuilt the vestibule and two sections were removed. The mens rest room was
moved into the former vestibule area and three double bedrooms were constructed
at this end.
| Clover
Colony |
Rebuilt:
8/16/40 |
Plan:
4036H |
Withdrawn:
9/1/61 |
| SHOP |
Shop Sequence |
CLASS REPAIR |
DATE IN |
DATE OUT |
RECORD |
| St. Louis |
16 |
M |
11/13/42 |
12/3/42 |
34422 |
| Richmond |
17 |
M |
11/26/46 |
11/27/46 |
43551 |
| St. Louis |
18 |
MSB |
12/16/49 |
1/6/50 |
49375 |
| St. Louis |
19 |
M |
3/3/52 |
3/17/52 |
53531 |
| Richmond |
20 |
M |
5/14/54 |
5/28/54 |
57245 |
| Wilmington |
21 |
MSB |
8/9/57 |
9/27/57 |
60820 |
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The Pullman monopoly came under fire in 1940 from
the Santa Fe Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Budd
Company when an Anti-Trust suit was filed.. The court decision in 1945 was for
Pullman to sell off either its' manufacturing division or the operating
division. By 1947 57 railroads combined to purchase the stock of the operating
division of the Pullman Company. As part of the purchase, the ownership of the
fleet of car was divided up between the railroads according to how much stock
teach owned. Southern Pacific received 173 heavyweight cars. 16 were
Clover series cars including the Clover Colony.
Southern Pacific used Clover series cars on
the Sunset Limited and Cascade until those trains were fully
re-equipped with streamline cars in 1950. They would still be used on secondary
trains like the West Coast, Owl, Starlight, Imperial and Cherokee
until these trains were equipped with hand me down lightweight cars or the
trains were discontinued. The rebuilt cars continued on in Pullman pool service
on second sections of holiday trains, convention specials and tour
service.
The brine tank in the A/C system was bypassed in
1950 and removed in 1952. Southern Pacific replaced Pullman on the letterboard,
with Pullman in 2 1/2" lettering at the ends. In 1957 Clover Colony was
painted two tone gray at the Wilmington shops and the name exchanged for number
8351. (Numbers instead of names was a Southern Pacific practice.) In September
1961 the car was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap.
The
story does not end there. Clover Colony was purchased by a private party
in 1964 and put into charter service. In 1968 it was purchased by Ross Rowland
and used during many of his steam train trips. It served a short time of
B&O ownership then back to Rowland before being sold to new owners in 1972.
Clover Colony accumulated more charter miles, and eventually was
upgraded with roller bearing wheel sets and "E" couplers to operate on Amtrak.
It was also painted PRR tuscan at one time.Clover Colony also
accumulated soot on its' roof from the famous 4449. Sold to new owners 1986
Clover Colony added many more miles to its' travel totals, including
4,000 in Mexico. |
This 70 year story has a dramatic twist. On August
23, 1992 Hurricane Andrew dropped the roof of the Gold Coast Museum onto
Clover Colony resulting in severe structural damage. The remains were
donated to the Tennessee Valley
Railroad Museum out of Chattanooga in 1993 and repairs were made to be able
to run on the museums railroad. Southern Rail Charters of Birmingham, Alabama
regularly charters the "Clover Colony" for steam-drawn private car excursions
in conjunction with the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum . The car operates
with the museum's "Eden Isle," ex-B&O Business Car #98, on all-day
excursions into north Georgia over the former Central of Georgia's Cedartown
branch. To view current itineraries visit their website at
www.southernrailcharters.com.
The heavy cars are noted for their open sections.
Clover Colony had some removed to have modern double bedrooms built in
their place. . |
If you
have any questions, comments, information or pictures to add, send them
to:
info@pullmanshops.com
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