Draft:Southern Pacific 10

Southern Pacific 10 is a Budd Rail Diesel Car that was built by the Budd Company for the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1954 and was the sole example of a Budd Rail Diesel Car ever ordered by the Southern Pacific.

History
Southern Pacific 10 was constructed in 1954 and was delivered to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in March 1954 for the Sacramento-Oakland Pier trains Nos. 226-241 and was advertised as a "Pocket Streamliner" in response to a denial by the California Public Utilities Commission and later the United States Supreme Court to discontinue these trains.


 * 1) 10 entered service on Trains 229 - 246 the Governor, the Sacramento-Oakland Pier run, later this was changed to Trains 226 - 241. As 241 the Sierra, #10 towed a heavyweight mail storage car to Davis to be setout for the Portland train #20 the Klamath. On the expiration of these runs on March 30th, 1959. The RDC was leased to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad for the Redwood service, trains #3 and #4.

Prior to leasing the unit, the Southern Pacific had rebuilt one end of the railcar to take on mail and express parcels reducing the seating to 68 from the original 90. The rebuilding involved adding a partition, removing the seats and putting bars over the windows.

It was rebuilt with only one control compartment, the mail/express area being extended into the vestibule and former control cab. #10 then became a single-ended unit and had to be turned on a turntable after every run.

At some point in time, perhaps during the rebuilding after the grade crossing accident, the entire driving cab end was painted red, certainly by May 1970, as the image above shows. After Amtrak took over the passenger services on the Southern Pacific in 1971, #10 was sold to a short line called the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway and renumbered as #100. It served there until 1978, when it was sold to the Moody Foundation of Galveston, Texas.

Accidents and incidents

 * On October 7th, 1960, #10 was involved in a grade crossing accident with a lumber truck at Fort Seward damaging the mail/express end; Norwood Hutchins who regularly worked out of Willits and Fort Seward, was the engineer at the time.