Does anybody know if RF&P passenger cars had interiors similar to those of SAL or ACL, since they ran through in Florida service? Bluewater Michigan Chapter, NRHS owns former RF&P coach #857 (Budd, 1947). We operate this car in excursion service and are in the process of renovating the interior. A particular problem is seat color, as Amtrak increased the capacity from 56 to 60 seats in the mid-1970s and few if any of the seats are original (so we can't just look under the current fabric. We could also use info on flooring and wall colors and exterior painting/lettering. You can view this car (and others, including some former SAL equipment) at our website:

http://www.bluewaternrhs.com

Any help along these lines will be appreciated.

Bob Thatcher, President Bluewater Michigan Chapter, NRHS

-- Robert Thatcher (thatcheb@tacom.army.mil), January 26, 2000

Answers

You may want to locate the other existing cars for information. http://www.trainweb.com/rf&p/archive/exist.htm#pass

-- Randall Bass (Bellbluffcamp@aol.com), October 24, 2000.

When the RF&P 36 seat diner Henrico operated for a time as a cafe- lounge on ACL train #191-192 between St.Pete-Jax,its interior was painted a light tan and differed from its Coast Line brethren in general appearance. An interior shot is available,although this won't help regarding the Budd coach info. It does meet the thread title, however.

-- paul coe (paul_coe@yahoo.com), October 23, 2000.

Car 857 was built in conjunction with a series of 52 seat cars for the Seaboard and the Pennsylvania Railroad. I have copies of the builders photos, but they are in black and white. Let me see what I have in my files. As a rule, RF&P interiors were similar to SAL in terms of interior paint, but other decorations were different. In this series however, I believe that an RF&P interior was identical to a SAL interior. As for the seats, the original seats had a mid seat folding divider. If one of the seats shows the remnants of such a divider, then it is a good bet that this would be an original seat. Apparently what AMTRAK did was to respace the seats using as much of the original car equipment as possible. Lemme know what you need and I will see if I have it.(Original response was sent bymistake-delete)

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), January 26, 2000.

Car 857 was built in conjunction with a series of 52 seat cars for the Seaboard and the Pennsylvania Railroad. I have copies of the builders photos, but they are in black and white. Let me see what I have in my files.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), January 26, 2000.