DSS&A 101

Wooden Baggage-Mail-Express Car

When the Minnesota Transportation Museum purchased 101 in 1987, it was part of a set of wooden work train cars and numbered "SOOR 1474". The Soo Line had inherited in when it absorbed the Duluth, South Shore, & Atlantic. In 1964 it went to the Bridge & Building department. The "R" in the road name indicates "Haul in rear of train" - probably because of its age.

101 is a baggage car with a 30-foot Railway Post Office section. (Twice the length of the RPO in Northern Pacific 1102 at Osceola.) From John P. DuLong's 1922 DSS&A passenger car roster, "Built 1905 by Barney and Smith Car Co., wood body and steel underframe, 6-wheel, 70 feet, 3 inches, vestibules. Transferred to the Soo Line Bridge and Building Department in April 1964. At one time, probably before the DSS&A owned it, this had been a private car." It's trucks are especially interesting. They are very old, of composite wood and iron construction.

The car is on a display track east of the Jackson Street Roundhouse, and has been renovated as a railroad art display gallery. (It was nearly finished when this photo was taken.) Click here to see a before-renovation photo.