07/24/2026
Southern Pacific Cut Railcars in Half, to make them longer.
Freshly Repainted Southern Pacific McKeen Motor Car #29, hauling Trailer Car #20, direct sister to the T-16 of which we have rescued from being scrapped, last year.
This photo was taken Pre-1917 as that was the year Southern Pacific tried to fix a big mistake. They owned over 20 of the 55 foot McKeen Cars and realized too late that the lack of a baggage compartment frustrated the passengers when they tried to bring something like a steamer trunk with them... as it would not fit through the 24" wide drop center doors.
Southern Pacific, stuck with these cars, did not consider cutting a baggage doorway into the existing 55 foot cars an option, instead, trailer cars were purchased to try to rectify the issue, and for 3 of these 55 footers, including #29, SP tried cutting the car in half to add a 15 foot baggage area... essentially making the cars 70 footers... the experiment to convert 3 of these cars may not have gone over well? Maybe it cost too much for quickly aging technology? I do not know, but S.P. did not continue this practice and ended up scrapping most 55 foot cars before ever converting them. I assume SP kept these cars around for a while as a source of parts...
The motor car shows no striping, and large aluminum lettering, so this car was repainted by S.P. A diagram for this specific paint scheme was drawn up February 17th, 1913. "Cherry in Japan" was the new body color, and appears to be similar to McKeen's color, but the trailer car appears to have an entirely different body color, despite lacking the factory striping... which suggests it was repainted as well.
Help Restore the McKeen Car "Cuyamaca" as when our car is restored, we will impersonate other McKeen cars that no longer exist, including the Southern Pacific McKeen Cars like #29. The Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad has invited us to operate at their Museum when our car is restored, as McKeen operated on that rail until 1939.
