Description:
Builder's photo showing a blunt-end observation-coach on the Pere Marquette passenger train. To eliminate turning the trains, in 1946 the Pere Marquette Railroad ordered four cars from Pullman-Standard with rear-end controls for bi-directional operations. Each consist carried two of the 56-seat, blunt-end observation-coaches. Their stay on the railroad was short-lived, however, as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad purchased all of them in 1950. The Pere Marquette train ran between Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, Michigan and faced difficult competition from the state's automotive industry. Most of trains were abandoned in the 1960s, although passenger trains are quietly staging a comeback in the Wolverine State with Amtrak's Michigan Services. For a close-up of the end, see record 1221. This photo appears on p. 189 of More Classic Trains by Arthur Dubin (Kalmbach, 1974).
Observation-coach #20 with bi-directional controls
Builder, Cars:
Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company
Creator Description:
Joseph McAllister started work for Pullman in 1928. He studied photography in a home study course and became a photograher's assistant in 1937. He chief photographer from 1945 to about 1950.
