Are these the "Wyatt Earp" cars with the arrow holes in the sides and roofs?

Car 95047 is obviously a rebuilt Pullman section sleeper or some similar car. If it were used in RI commuter service I imagine it was a private club car for playing pinochle on the way too and fro. Did not know there were mucky mucks in the southwest region of the City but I guess it is as likely as anywhere.

The Texas State Railroad coaches are still the 'primary cars' on the line and maintained as such, but there's had to be a lot of work on them.

The roofs are being redone again, about the third time in 20 years.

Most are on their second or third set of wheels. I think nearly all of them now have AC installed, mostly through a big center duct in the roof on the interior. That may seem terrible, but so is Texas heat in August with a black-roofed car. All have been repainted at least twice.

The floors have needed a lot of work, and the diaphragms have all been replaced. Next will be the upgrade of the old UC brake systems.

Moral is that if you are keeping these cars, they need a lot of work, but they earn their keep.

From some research I'm doing....
Across the tracks from the Russellville depot is the local landmark of Stoby’s Restaurant. This restaurant has for decades used several passenger cars as part of the restaurant. One of these is former Rock Island Railroad commuter car #2572. A second car that has been built into the main building is former Illinois Central coach #3661. The third car is former Rock Island parlor car #3505. This car was built in 1930 by Pullman Car & Manufacturing Company, one of six such cars bought by the railroad. In 1951, the car was converted to instruction car #1815, a mobile classroom for railroad training and rules examinations. It was rebuilt in 1966 at the company’s Silvis shops into a Maintenance of Way food service car, and it was also used in wreck train service. The cars were bought by Russellville businessman John Harris after the Rock Island closed and moved them to Russellville where they have been used by several businesses.

Bart

These were recently removed and sold to the Dardanelle and Russellville Railroad.

That is why I posted the information. Earlier in this discussion, somewhat asked for the history of the cars.

Bart

Just curious, how did so many of these rather unique cars survive? I mean was Rock Island selling them off super cheap at a time when other cars were not available? These would’ve been sold off far before the shut down, correct? For so many cars to be scattered around the country, word got out.

Remember the Rock Island ended in bankruptcy. The Trains Magazine article of the early 1980s of the former manager details how threadbare the operations were at the end. The Jessie James cars were disliked by all, and a source of complaints from the riders.

I remember these cars in service on the Minnesota Transportation Museum, and I could even back in 1983 see severe deterioration from rust. They were life expired in 1980 and tourist lines squeezed the last juice out of these lemons.

Steven -

The Rock Island purchased the 2500's in the 1920's and ran them into the 1980's. I think that they got their money's worth out of them, and I surely would not label them as "lemons". Yes, the Rock was short of funds toward the end, but I rode the 2500's for many years when they were in commuter service and never had any complaints about the cars themselves, doing what they were built for; to provide transportation to riders in a non-profitable service. The fact that they are still going strong on a number of tourist or museum lines (IRM, MRM, Whitewater, etc.), proves, I think, that they were decent cars.

Les