SOO 1472

Heavyweight Dining Car

Little is known about the history of this car, other than it was part of a Soo Line work train picked up by MTM in 1987. Other cars in the train included baggage-RPO DSS&A 101, sleeper 693, nearly-identical sleeper 725, and coach 1476. (These numbers may be inaccurate - peeled paint is hard to read.)

1472 is probably its maintenance-of-way number. The original car number, configuration, builder, date built, and date retired are unknown. Typical for the Soo Line, it has steel framing and walls, but a wooden floor and roof. Visually, it appears to be an WWI-vintage car. One third of the interior (marked by the commissary service door and the small windows) is the kitchen - still intact. The other two thirds were dining tables, typically seating 36 (Four on one side, two on the other) or 48 (four and four.) At the end of the dining section, where the hall swings right of the kitchen and the kitchen entry is on the left, there is still a very ornate built-in hutch with mirror. When MTM acquired the car, the tables and chairs were gone, replaced by long tables, bench seats, and various refrigerators and freezers.

In about 1998, MTM put a $2000 custom boat tarp over the car to protect it. That was removed when it was trucked to Jackson Street in December 2005. Though worn and torn in places, it could probably be put on again.

Notice the near coupler is missing. MOW cars apparently did not get much invested in them. 1472's drawbars are both scabbed together from other parts. The but end from one, and the coupler body from another, joined by splice plates. This end snapped off when they tried to lift the car by blocking it and putting the crane sling underneath.

The "M" on the end indicated MTM was keeping the car. These had to be trucked to Jackson Street, and MTM sold two (725 and 1476) to the Gopher State Railroad Museum to reduce costs.