Route of the Eagles Forum

[Robin]

Where may I find information if the Texas and Pacific used motorcars? I know the Cotton Belt used motorcars (Jitneys) to Bailey, Tx and other areas. I believe the Santa Fe also used motorcars (Doodlebugs) in this part of Texas.

[mikadotexas]

The T&P never used motor cars of the type you described. They did, however, run an early version of the Zephyr styled train set. It was a two car unit that was manufactured by Budd and Michellin. It was not well liked by the T&P since the road wheels were made of rubber and had the bad tendancy to wear out extremely quickly. It also had a weak engine contributing to the poor performance. The unit was called the Silver Slipper and to the best of my knowledge there is only one picture of it. It is a grainy 3/4 view black and white. The unit is crude looking compared to later similar units. While the T&P did not like the unit, I do simply because it would be a unique piece of equipment to model. Hope this helps.

[Alicia]

Robin, if you are talking about the car's that the section gangs used to do maintenance and repairs to the railroad tracks, yes, T&P used them. My grandparents raised me from diapers and my grandaddy worked for T&P, as a Section Foreman, all his life. He would sometimes let me ride on the motorcar. That was really a thrill way back then. When he retired, with 50 years of service, he was the top man on the seniority list. T&P had changed over to MoPac by then.

[darrelbsmith]

I have seen one other photo of the Silver Sliper, it was the frount where the driver sat, swung out like a big door so you could see the two engines that sat side by side. with the frount swung out like a big door you could have accest to the engines for maintenance. Ill try to find it and post it, Darrel Smith

[dhogan]

T&P operated a McKeen car from Dallas through Fort Worth to Weatherford and Mineral Wells. Not sure if the motorcar was ever owned by the T&P or just by the WMW&NW. In any case, it did operate on T&P rails.

Texas Midland operated its GE motorcars over the T&P between Terrell and Dallas.