| This Pullman
heavyweight 3-2 observation car is painted the Southern Pacific’s
Olive Green with metallic gold herald, lettering, and road name
‘Shasta’. It was built Pullman-Standard and then sold
to Southern Pacific in 1930. Running on six-wheel passenger trucks,
this observation car served the SP from 1930 though the ‘50s.
The introduction of the steel cars brought the end of the luxurious,
artisan-crafted, and custom designed wooden cars, which had been
the rule since the 1880s. With the opening of the Pennsylvania
Station in New York in 1910, and the Grand Central Terminal in
1913, passenger safety in the tunnels approaching these buildings
demanded a more noncombustible material. |
