Wabash’s Bluebird, 1950-1964

Fred Klein, 2013

The Bluebird ran between Chicago and St. Louis. The Wabash ran many passenger trains, but the dome cars made the Bluebird a true streamliner. The Bluebird required only one trainset: it departed St. Louis in the morning for the 5-hour trip to Chicago, then returned in the afternoon. Other railroads ran the same route, but the new Wabash dome cars were more attractive to ride than the refurbished heavyweight cars that other railroads were using. The modern Bluebird gave the Wabash an advantage over its competitors. Budd built the train including the dome coaches, dome-observation-parlor car, baggage-lunch counter and diner cars. Because of the train’s popularity, and additional dome car from Pullman was bought in 1952.

 

Norfolk and Western bought the Wabash in 1964. The Bluebird continued to run but with Norfolk and Western in the letterboard.

 

The Bluebird near St. Louis in 1958. An E7 locomotive is pulling.

 

The Bluebird is pulled by an E7 diesel and has 4 dome cars.

 

Postcard view of the Bluebird circa 1950.

 

The consist is from Wayner’s book Passenger train consists 1923-1973, page 56. It is for a Bluebird leaving Chicago on August 12, 1951. An E8 (commonly after their delivery in 1951) or occasionally two PA locomotives were also used. Several years ago, Kato issued a Wabash set of 4 cars (baggage, two dome coaches, and an observation-parlor) and two PA1s. The set is a starting point for a Bluebird even though it was not a complete prototype train and the cars were based on Budd cars but CB&Q prototypes. The two Budd dome coaches are prototypical (though a third must be added), a baggage car was not often used (the Wabash did not own any Budd baggage cars), and the observation car was domeless, even though it was beautifully painted. The Kato set was not advertised as the Bluebird, is beautiful, but is from the era when they were painting some cars for roads other than the prototype.

 

 

 

 

 

Locomotive and first half of the train

 

The Bluebird was generally pulled by an EMD E unit, here prototypically modeled by a Life like E7. If an extra baggage car was needed beyond what the baggage compartment in the lunch car could hold, the Wabash would have used one of its heavyweight baggage cars. It did not own any Budd lightweight baggage cars like the one supplied in the 4-car Kato set. The model baggage car is a Wheels of Time car. The Wabash painted its smooth-side cars solid blue in the 50s and 60s to match its newer, simplified locomotive paint scheme. The baggage-lunch counter car is not made in N scale, but the Concor factory-painted baggage-dormitory car is an acceptable substitute. The prototype for the model is a 1947 Pullman-Standard car rather than the Budd car used on the Bluebird. The dome coaches were ordered new in 1950 from Budd for the Bluebird. The Kato model is based on the Budd dome coaches owned by the CB&Q and are the same as those used on the Bluebird.

 

Second half of the train

 

The bluebird had a total of 3 Budd dome coaches. The dome cars were very popular. A Budd diner followed the dome coaches. For the model train, I decaled a Concor Budd diner in Wabash colors (using blue stripes and yellow lettering). The prototype for the diner model is from the 1949 California Zephyr and is very similar to the 1950 Wabash diner. The last Bluebird car was a Budd dome coach-observation-parlor. The Kato 4-car set did not use a dome observation, but their set included a Budd flat top observation car, which was based on a Budd 1940 prototype built for the CB&Q. It would be hard to have a Bluebird without a dome observation, so I decaled a Concor dome sleeper-observation (based on the 1948 California Zephyr prototype) in Wabash colors. The dome on the Wabash observation car was to the front (see postcard above), but the dome on the model is to the rear. The Wabash signature tail car must be a dome-observation, or the train would not look right. The photo below is of the Kato observation model, which has a lighted tail sign but no dome.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Randall, David, From Zephyr to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_(train)

 

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