Western Pacific Custom Restoration by TTT

[Brett - TTT]

The photo of the Western Pacific custom on a flatbed transporter was taken about 5 years ago. The trailer was on the way to Timeless Travel Trailers in Denver, CO. Over the interviening years we have worked with the owner to design a new interior for the unit. As the owner lives in Canada and works in Tunisia communication has been an interesting challenge. The project finally got underway last year during the civil insurection in Tunisia when the owner was requested not to leave his home.

The exterior of the trailer will be restored to its original railroad appearance while the interior is getting a complete refit. The interior is designed in the Mid-Century Modern style appropriate to the period of original construction. We will be updating our Web site over the next month so you can check in there to see the progress.

[Melody Ranch]

It could not be in better hands.

[FreshAir]

Of course.....I like the now classic station wagon TV. I am looking for such a station wagon to supplement the classic Buick convertible we use to tow with.......wellllll, I do have a '75 Jeep 3/4 ton pickup with a Buick 455.....it's just soooo difficult to hook up the Jeep with the convertible parked nearby. Anyway I saw that 40' Airstream at the Portola Rail yards back in the early 1980s. The 'yard' has since become a popular museum. I hope the Airstream is being presented well.
Neil

[FreshAir]

Originally Posted by PeeWee

What a great line cabin for the gandy dancers.

For additional vintage photos and stories go to SNU at

http://sierranevadaairstreams.org/memories/history/peewee/index.html

Pee Wee

WHAT...that '55 Buick got 35mpg towing that! Mostly downhill I bet.

Neil

[Brett - TTT]

The 40' WP Airstream now at Timeless Travel Trailers is a different unit from the one in Portella. The one is Portella is still in the WP Museum in Portella. This one was purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad at an auction in Elko, NV. We purchased it from the buyer for our client about 4 years ago. It appears there were originally ten of these 40' unit built. We know of three: Portola, Timeless and one in private hands reportedly in the Nevada desert.

[Brett - TTT]

A few interior progress photos of the Western Pacific 40' Airstream rebuild now in progress at Timeless Travel Trailers.

[REDNAX]

That really is the long, long trailer. Must be fun to have so much interior room to play with for a change (and as a challenge).

Thank you for posting these. Look foward to more.

.

[Landshark]

Really interesting! So now we have, in addition to the decades of sizes of TTs, the one(s?) used in the nuclear bomb tests, the RR versions, the NASA trailer, and some funeral coaches! Wow, I would never have credited A/S management with so much imagination. Too bad it's all so hohum now.

Vivian

[Brett - TTT]

The imagination is still present in Airstream management. I know most of the executive team and they are people of vision bit business reality is driven today by consumer demands for low price and stockholders' demands for profits.

Timeless Travel Trailers fills the niche for creativity in meeting the needs for the unique needs for highly custom units. We can start with an incomplete shell from the factory or vintage units and create just about anything.

[Steamguy]

I sent a link to this thread to a good friend of mine who worked for the Southern Pacific (known as Espee) and he had some interesting comments. I'll quote him here, thought you folks might find them interesting. He mentions M of W folks, these people who were the Maintenance of Way (track and roadbeds) were probably the roughest, toughest, rowdiest bunch that the railroad employed. Here are his notes:

In the late 50s and early 60s the company tried to move a lot of its M of W folks out of the old passenger cars and box cars and into Airstreams. They went so far as to make water, power and waste disposal available at places along the right of way. They usually used the existing septic system left over from a disestablished station. This went on for about ten years or so then the suits must have done a study and found that paying per diem and renting motel rooms was even cheaper. The M of W trucks assigned were all set up to pull the trailers when going from one place to another.

I take a guess and wonder if the relatively rough crowd was a little much for the somewhat flimsy interior construction and fixtures in the trailers as well as forcing the line managers and foremen to assure cleanliness and so forth.

One can still find the old hookups abandoned in rural areas along the track. The mechanization of the gangs and the reduction in staff numbers also made the per diem plan more practical.

A system steel gang or a tie gang in the '50s had upwards of 150 folks. Now it is a little more than one guy per machine plus the foreman and a mechanic and maybe a couple of utility men and the bus driver. The gangs are highly specialized: curve gangs that transpose the high and low rails at mid-life on curves, tie gangs, surfacing gangs that do tamping and aligning, switch gangs that only replace switches and others. A system gang usually has an assigned train to carry all the machines plus boxcars with spare parts. The mix depends on the season's work that is planned. It is my impression that no gang is better than its mechanic.

[Brett - TTT]

Thanks, Steamguy!

I think the Western Pacific used their Airstreams slightly differently than the SP. Two of the tires on this unit were from the time of the original build. They were dry rotted but still had good tread on them. All four wheels were still split ring type. The one we have in captivity would have been a bear to tow on the highway for any distance. It's tongue is less than two feet long which would have been nearly impossible to turn without crunching the trailer into the tow vehicle. Also, the tail end swing would have been wild with the axles in the center, although the SP units had a similar configuration. There were are 8, forged tie-down hooks for chaining it to a flatcar. The WP unit is 40' interior length making the overall length about 42'. There was an old lablemaker ghost on one of the doors that read "B&B Foreman", so I think it was the big boss who got this stylin' accomodation while on the road. It certainly wasn't a bunk car.

I do agree the old MOW gangs were some tough guys! We rebuilt a number of UP and GN cars that had been in MOW service for private owners, the American Orient Express, and our subsidiary lines. A car with millions of miles of Amtrak service on it was frequently easier to rebuild that a MOW car! Just getting the odor of the diesel fuel used for space heating and water heating was a big chore.

The current MOW and B&B crews are still the toughest guys on the pike there are fewer of them, more mechanization and a lot more outsourcing to Herzog and other contractors; All of whom use crew buses and motels to transport and house the gangs.

I think it is great the way the Union Pacific preserved American railroad history through all of the mergers. In each case when they merged with another line they kept part of the name. They dropped "Pacific" from Union Pacific and then took Pacific from each of; Missouri Pacific, Western Pacific, Southern Pacific...

[Aerowood]

Brett, How are you setting up the axle positions to tow this beast. Are they gong to be further aft, and are you going to maintain the tandem setup or going with 3 or ?

[Brett - TTT]

Since this unit will be delivered on a flatbed truck trailer to its new home and won't hit the highways again under its current owner we are, for once, breaking our own rules on axles of this age and leaving them original and in place. We would really like to make an appropriate delivery and ship it by rail but that option is neither practical or cost effective. I had enough problems shipping Budd and Pullman cars without them getting busted up!

[overlander63]

B&B foreman was the Bridge and Building foreman. Essentially he was in charge of infrastructure and other items as varied as telephone poles and toilets. If the railroad was doing this rehab instead of Brett, the B&B foreman would be the one in charge of it.