Micro-Trains World War II Pullman Troop Sleeper

Introduction

When the United States was drawn into World War II on December 7,1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – the American economy instantly transformed towards supply. Not only supply of guns, tanks, and planes – but also troops, service personnel, and medical professions to be deployed to the two warfronts in Europe and the Pacific.

The Prototype

The American railroad system was called upon to mobilize these supplies and troops. Locomotive power and rolling stock were essential in hauling the raw materials for production and delivering the finished goods to be shipped into battle. Military personnel traveled by heavyweight passenger cars to report to camp. In 1944, over 745,000 ton-miles of war freight traveled by train. A ton-mile is a unit of traffic defined as one ton of freight carried one mile and reveals the volume shipped and the distance shipped. “Ton-miles provides the best single measure of physical volume of freight transportation services” – Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Furthermore, 97% of all military passengers traveled by railroad. During the United States full participation in World War II (Pearl Harbor December 7,1941 to the Surrender of Japan September 2, 1945), 44 million service members and military personnel journeyed on the rails. Traveling to base, camp, assignment, and back to home.

At first, regular passenger train schedules with heavyweight coach equipment and spare Pullman cars were pressed into duty. But this level of service was deemed unsatisfactory, and passenger cars became too crowded or unavailable as an estimated 1 million service members traveling domestically by train each month during wartime.



To ‘combat’ this issue, civilian travelers were urged to travel by rail only when absolutely necessary. The public was asked to either cancel their trip or find other means of travel. The ‘Is Your Trip Essential?’ campaign was created informing non-essential travelers to save space for the civilian war worker or the serviceman moving to camp or joining his family for a visit during furlough. The average American citizen was requested to sacrifice convenience to support the war effort at home.



Additionally, to meet the growing demand of military passenger travel – the U.S. Office of Defense Transportation ordered 2400 railcars. Most of these cars, delivered late-1943 to 1945, were built by Pullman Company of Chicago and included troop sleeper and hospital cars. The American Car and Foundry Company (ACF) also helped-out, producing 440 kitchen and 200 hospital cars.



Pullman Company was requested to deliver these railcars both quickly and economically. Initially, the first series of troop sleeper cars were converted from boxcars. Also, to save time and money creating new designs, the Pullman troop sleeper was built from AAR (Association of American Railroads) standard 50’-6” boxcar plans. The cars were equipped with Allied full cushion trucks and flat car ends with doors similar to standard rail passenger cars. Twelve windows were installed with black-out screens and shades to provide light and ventilation. The cars were painted Pullman Green with gold lettering.

Passengers boarded the troop car via two wide center doors. The interior was 9-foot high with weapon racks, equipment storage shelves, two enclosed toilets, and four mounted washstands with hot & cold water. The troop cars had 10-rows with a lower section sofa seating area that was converted into bunks stacked three-high at night. Thus, each car slept 30 individuals – 29 service members and one Pullman porter. Pillowcases and sheets were changed daily. The accommodations were reported to be poor – not comfortable, bad smells, and rough conditions to sleep. With little to do aboard – when not trying to sleep, the men talked or played cards. Pullman supplied each train with a fresh supply of pinochle cards – allowing the men to take the decks with them on their assignments. High-ranking officers and VIPs rarely traveled in troop cars – opting to travel in private coach or observation cars. Troop trains often moved in secrecy with the solider at times not knowing his destination.



Baggage cars were assigned as temporary kitchen cars until ACF was able to deliver their order. Usually, two kitchen cars were allocated to each troop train movement with the troops taking meals in their bunks.



After the War, many of the troop cars were transformed for peace-time use: Maintenance of Way (MOW), crew car, express baggage, reefer, power car, and caboose.

Road Names and Pricing

Micro-Trains Line introduced the Pullman Company Troop Sleeper Car in 2003 with a suggested retail price of $18.55. In total, Micro-Trains as released forty-one unique production models of the Troop Sleeper Car under the following road names:

• Chesapeake & Ohio
• Grand Truck Western
• Liberty Railroad
• Norfolk & Western
• Pullman Company
• Rio Grande
• Western Maryland
• Undecorated

My review includes observations of Micro-Trains Line 116 00 070: Norfolk & Western 50-foot Troop Sleeper Car #565700. Released in March 2018 with a suggested retail price of $23.40.

The Model

The Micro-Trains Line troop sleeper car came packaged in a clear plastic jewel case with a slip-off cover and a one-piece plastic cradle to cushion the model. The model information is clearly labeled on the end of the case for ease to locate when in storage. A thin, rigid plastic sheet was positioned on the exposed side of the car to protect the model from scratches. No additional pieces were found inside the case.



This model represents a World War II bunk car that was converted to Maintenance of Way (MOW) service in 1963. The type M500 passenger car was painted Norfolk & Western (NW) green with yellow safety handrails and renumbered 565700 at that time. No data information is stenciled on the car. Norfolk & Western also painted their maintenance of way equipment yellow and Tuscan red. The green paint job is neat and bold along the entire injection molded plastic model. The white lettering is crisp and sharp. Well-defined and straight rivet lines outline each side panel.

The repainted bright green MOW car maintains many unique characteristics from its troop hauling days. The model’s window configuration is a perfect match to the Pullman Company troop sleeper. The two smaller windows under the N&W herald are positioned where the washing station was located. Each of the five windows on both sides of the center door mark where the ten rows of passengers were seated. The twelve upper windows provided light and fresh air for each row of upper bunks. The windowless end panel section was the toilet area. If you can sneak a peek inside, Micro-Trains has included rows of seating for the military passengers to travel.



Both ends feature a molded diaphragm and passenger car door with window and door handle detail. Riveted steel panels and passenger car piping flank the pass-thru door. No road marking and road number are visible.



The welded metal panel roof features the Pullman-Standard PS-1 boxcar pattern with the troop car prototype correct six ventilation stacks. The black underframe features are impressive assortment of separately applied passenger brake equipment: service reservoir, emergency reservoir, auxiliary reservoir, brake cylinder, universal valve, and brake couplings & pipes.



The troop sleeper model measured 4 inches in length and weighed 1.30 ounces. This weight is higher from the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) recommendation of 1.13 ounces – but this car is an excellent runner with no issues running on Kato Unitrack. The model had a nice, solid feel in my hand and performed perfectly at low and medium speeds. The troop car has truck mounted Micro-Trains Line couplers with black plastic wheels. Both couplers were aligned to the proper height. Unlike traditional Pullman sleeper passenger cars that run on six-wheel trucks, the Pullman troop car travels like a boxcar car on four-wheel trucks.



As excepted, a quality model from Micro-Trains --- well-made, bold colors, great runner with prototypical design and parts. I enjoyed the addition of row seating inside the chair, but I would like to see a little more effort into the coloring of the interiors…maybe a light brown or grey for a more realistic appearance than molded white benches. Nice touch of American history with Micro-Trains supplying both the World War II era troop cars for personnel movement and later versions when these cars were converted for several other uses. I highly recommend you march on down to your favorite hobby shop and add a Micro-Trains Line troop sleeper car to your collection.

To View the Entire Collection of Micro-Trains Line Troop Sleeper Cars: CLICK HERE

Photo Credits

United States Office of Defense Transportation; US Government Printing Office. Materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office are in the public domain and, as such, not subject to copyright restriction. Source: Northwestern University Library Digital Collections: World War II Poster Collection “Millions of Troops are on the Move…Is Your Trip Necessary?”

United States Office of Defense Transportation; US Government Printing Office. Materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office are in the public domain and, as such, not subject to copyright restriction. Source: University of North Texas Digital Library Collections: World War II Poster Collection “Is Your Trip Necessary? Needless Travel Interferes with the War Effort.

U.S. Army Troop Kitchen Car #8762, at the Lafayette, Indiana shops of the Monon Railway on April 17, 1947. Taken from the collection of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information at the Library of Congress. Public Domain.

U.S. Army Transportation, Troop Sleeper Car no 5205, Little River RR, Coldwater, Mich. 19 July 2019, Chris Light. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Drawing: Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Pullman Troop Sleeper illustration from 1943 Car Builders' Cyclopedia