Vintage Rail Cars in Jax - Photo Montage

[stjr]

A few historic RR photos in Jax  from Florida State Archives:

RC13266 - Train car laboratory of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation : Jacksonville, Florida


RC12974 - Florida Southern Railway Company railroad car "Governor Perry"


RC06965- Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River railroad car "Governor Bloxham"


RF01039 - Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company railway car : Jacksonville, Florida


RF01055 - Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company railway car : Jacksonville, Florida


RF00980 - Employees from the Jacksonville Refrigerator Company assembled in front of box car for a group portrait : Jacksonville, Florida


RF00857 - Close-up view of a Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company train car : Jacksonville, Florida


FEC Baggage Car #437: Jacksonville, Florida




RF01065 - Dantzler Lumber


SP02096 - Pullman car steps

[Ocklawaha]

Ocklawaha the train guy's comment's on stjr's photo montage.

A few historic RR photos in Jax  from Florida State Archives:

Been there done that... Okay, so I'm a smart A$$

RC13266 - Train car laboratory of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation : Jacksonville, Florida

This car and apparent sister cars, roamed the country frequenting New York/Jacksonville/Los Angeles stations as the "Hollywood's" of their day, required. It was a very early vehicle used on location shooting, something that might have been pioneered right here in Jacksonville. In the early days, studio shots were the norm, and it was necessary for a production company to recreate entire scenes either on stages, or on lots. Photography in it's infancy was unable to cope with bright colors, light changes, rain, fog, haze etc. so the only way of being sure they could shoot was to create their own weather and light conditions in a controlled environment. To recreate God and Man's world in an artificial setting was hugely expensive which prompted companies like Technicolor to improve their product, to allow shooting in real world locations. Today location shots are the norm and very little studio shooting takes place, not only are the economic benefits better for all concerned but the reality is much improved. This frequent Jacksonville train car started a revolution that marches on today.

RC12974 - Florida Southern Railway Company railroad car "Governor Perry"

No where near Jacksonville, this car is on the narrow gauge Florida Southern Railway, which ran from Gainesville - Rochelle Junction - Ocala - Ocklawaha - Leesburg - Pemberton's Ferry - Brooksville. It had a branchline from Rochelle Junction - Interlatchen - Palatka, and also a line from Bartow - Charlotte Harbor. This was the original "Orange Belt Route." The FSRY was bought out by Henry B. Plant, who folded it along with the narrow gauge South Florida Railroad (Sanford - Tampa), and the narrow gauge Sanford and St. Petersburg, aka: "The Orange Belt Railway", (Sanford - Trilby - St. Petersburg). If you know your Florida geography, you have figured out by now the Florida Southern had an 86 mile gap between it's main system, north of Pemberton's Ferry, and Bartow.
They planned on building from both points into Tampa, but it never happened. Mr. Plant, was buying up railroads, steamship lines, and building streetcar companies, faster then these small railroads could fight back. When his standard Gauge Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad (today's CSX A - Mainline) reached Sanford, he bought out the South Florida Railroad, and pushed it on to Tampa. He then cut a deal with the Florida Southern that said in effect, "you don't build into Tampa, and we won't invade your territory, and to sweeten the pot, WE will build the 86 mile Pemberton's Ferry - Bartow line as part of the South Florida Railroad, and give you operating rights to that portion of it..." Of course in a couple of years, everything that wasn't firmly in Flagler's FEC camp, ended up in the Plant System, or the early Seaboard Air Line Railroad.

RC06965- Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River railroad car "Governor Bloxham"

This narrow gauge railroad pretty much connected the points in it's name, something of a rarity in shortline railroading, which traditionally has loved grandiose names. An example of the shortline comic's was found in a certain Pensacola road, which owned 1,000 feet of track... it's name.... "The Mexican Gulf Pacific and Puget Sound Railway Company! awesome! But the little JSTA&HRRR had it's own claim to fame. When Henry Flagler came to Jacksonville with wad's of Standard Oil cash in his pockets, and a desire to build REALLY huge hotels and resorts, this little road took him to St. Augustine. Flagler was charmed and started construction of his first major hotel, while the owners of the little railroad figured out they would bill him for every brick he shipped over their line. Flagler didn't just get a bill, he got the shaft from these good ol' boy's, who stuck it to the millionaires pocket. They charged him so much he had no real choice but to buy the damn railroad out just to stop the bills from breaking the bank. Flagler never intended to get into the business but one might say he was "Railroaded" into it, and of course the rest is poetic history.

RF01039 - Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company railway car : Jacksonville, Florida

This is a company fuel car, probably delivering bunker "C" or alternatively "Number 6" fuel oil, for use in steam locomotives. As coal was phased out as the primary source of fuel, due mostly to the cinders, which will give one an intense eye pain that can last for days (making it unpopular with the traveling public) coal also leaves a slight ash over the train, and in the days before AC was common, you can imagine what this did to clothing. The answer was Bunker C / #6 fuel oil, which has a consistency of soup. The stuff was hard to move and store but the steam engineer's liked it and the firemen who traded in a shovel for a valve handle, loved the stuff. This would be out in West Jax Yard, near the old roundhouse, the location right off McDuff and Beaver Street. Today West Jax is gone, the shops and roundhouse all torn down, and museums or operating steam railroads have moved to kerosene or diesel fuel, as bunker C is almost impossible to find today.

RF01055 - Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company railway car : Jacksonville, Florida

Interesting gondola car. This is a World War II, United States Railroad Administration, "WAR EMERGENCY GONDOLA." These cars in several different classes and styles, were built as fairly modern 1940's vintage steel cars, but from the deck up, everything but the fittings was wood! This was done to preserve our metal resources for the battle fronts in Europe and the Pacific. Wood framed cars had already been deemed illegal for interchange between railroads, and many other rules, including some that outlawed several old style trucks, had already been in effect for years. The war changed all of that at least for a short time, railroaders of the "baby boom" generation, thus got to see some samples of 1800's style railroading, up into the 1960's when all of these cars were retired and made unfit for interchange. 

RF00980 - Employees from the Jacksonville Refrigerator Company assembled in front of box car for a group portrait : Jacksonville, Florida

Again, while not a War Emergency Car, this is a standard car design as laid out by the old USRA, and built by many car builders as well as some railroad shop complexes. A box car is not a box car, is not a box car! Really!
Each class of car's is given a designation and those standards are universal. So just to mess with your brains, here is a sample of a couple of typical box car standards



    XM - Box car for general service equipped with side or side and end doors.

    XF - Non-insulated box car similar in design to 'XM', designed and specifically prepared with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved white epoxy or other comparable white coating to seal interior walls, doors, and ends, and provide a smooth durable surface to prevent contamination.

    XL - Loader Equipped. Box car similar in design to 'XM', with steel perforated side walls or equipped with interior side rails for securement of certain types of lading and/or permanently attached movable bulkheads.

    Note: Cars equipped with interior side rails only, built new, rebuilt or reclassified on and after January 1, 1966, in order to qualify for the 'XL' designation, shall have a minimum of four (4) usable side rails on each wall of car, each extending from doorway to approximately four (4) feet from end of car, plus facilities in doorway to accommodate doorway members. The facilities in the doorway are not required in cars equipped with plug type doors.

    XP - Box car similar in design to 'XM', but which is specially equipped, designed, and/or structurally suitable for a specific commodity loading; except box cars dedicated to the transportation of commodities in paragraph A, Rule 97, AAR Interchange Rules, must be designated, 'XP'.

    Note 1: The specific lading for which intended must be included in the description column in The Official Railway Equipment Register.

    Note 2: Box cars having an 'XM' designation being changed to 'XP' must be reported to the Secretary, Transportation Division, ten (10) days prior to restenciling. XT - Box car with or without doors either metal lined or enclosing one or more tanks.

    Note: When any of the foregoing Class 'X' cars are insulated, the letter 'I' should be added to the designation.

RF00857 - Close-up view of a Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company train car : Jacksonville, Florida

The railroad answer to that lousy pulpwood truck that you got stuck behind all the way to Starke! Expensive car, hard life, very little income.

FEC Baggage Car #437: Jacksonville, Florida

These cars lined up by the hundreds in Jacksonville. In fact we had one major passenger terminal in downtown, being one of the few cities of our size that got the railroad's act together enough to all be in a single station, rather then scattered in two or three locations... Birmingham 3, Memphis 2, Atlanta 3, etc... But on the other end we were home to the largest Railway Express Company facility in the whole world, with some 32 tracks that backed into a headhouse on Myrtle Avenue, where JTA sits today. Even in the late 1960's it was not at all unusual to pass a sea of these cars lined up for express shipments and if that were not enough, the Atlantic Coast Line and Florida East Coast operated their own terminal railroad. The Atlantic and East Coast Terminal Company, crossed Bay Street just west of the Jacksonville Terminal, and had tracks all through LaVilla. The Florida East Coast "freight station," was in reality, just another express station in downtown Jacksonville. On any given day prior to the FEC's 1963 strike, one could find an assortment of baggage, express and FEC's unique express box cars lined up along  these tracks. Sadly our city geniuses blew up and bulldozed the whole of the A&EC'S beautiful arched freight station, in the name of "redevelopment," which never happened. We lost a priceless piece of our railroad heritage, and the chance of recycling a truly unique piece of Jacksonville.

RF01065 - Dantzler Lumber

Okay, now it's your turn, go to the AAR spec's above and tell me what class of box car this is?? Can you do it? You know if you worked for me in the railroad yard, and Mr. XYZ wanted to ship a carload of delicate high tech equipment, he'd be REALLY pissed if you sent him a box car classed for bagged cement pallet loading.

SP02096 - Pullman car steps

Okay, I'm getting on, which means I'm through here, hope you enjoy the notes... You know I don't think I've every met a Pullman Step that I couldn't resist stepping up on. All Aboard!


OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

Thanks for the commentary, Ock.  What are the boards along the side of the Jacksonville/St. Augustine, narrow gauge car?  Almost looks like the passenger compartment was put on some sort of flatbed car.

[Ocklawaha]

You are correct Dog Walker, the narrow gauge PV, is sitting on a wooden gondola car. The real mystery about this scene is the wooden gondola seems to be sitting on narrow gauge trucks, meaning of course that it too is narrow gauge. As all connections out of Jacksonville were standard gauge, there would be no reason to load her up for shipment. It looks like a new car in the photo, but one has to wonder if this was some car builder on narrow gauge tracks up north? If so, how far did it go before they had to transship the whole affair into a standard gauge car?  This also leaves the question as to why it didn't move over it's own wheels on a narrow gauge road at the other end? If the gondola was standard gauge, as I now suspect, that would explain the shipment method from somewhere north down to Jacksonville.


OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Ock, I appreciate your vivid response as always!  I posted these pictures looking for enlightenment from the types of you and, as always, you delivered with bonus points.  Thanks for educating us.

I found some other pix I will post when I have time for more of your colorful commentary to accompany.