 click on the headlines
newspaper images courtesy Newspapers.com
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The Good...
Apr. 29, 1909: Appendicitis and the French spur the McKeen Car.
Jan. 9, 1909: "All Right", but keep the speed down, please.
SP bailed out of California politics soon thereafter.
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The Bad...
Jul. 29, 1909: "...the present calibre of gasoline car would
not be a proper investment." Maybe pulling "several" day
coaches overtaxed McKeen #19's 250 h.p. motor a bit too much?
(above) April Fools, 1909! Yet, here is #45 below, arriving at Placerville in
1914 on a run that it henceforth held almost continuously until it was pulled in
January, 1939 as the last SP McKeen schedule. - photo Wx4 Collection
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xThe Ugly...
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May 8, 1924: Reports of collisions between McKeens and autos/wagons/pedestrians frequented California and Oregon newspapers until the mid-1920's, some of them gruesom such as this one. On a different note, this is the only post-1916 report of a McKeen Car on the Coos Bay Branch that we have found.
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SP's first McKeens to be purged were the 55 foot cars, which were generally unsuitable for branchline work for the lack of baggage-mail compartments. The majority of these cars were laid aside in 1920, shortly after SP regained control of its railroad from USRA, but before SP started the wholesale axing of branchline passenger service. This deadline photo evidently was snapped at Sacramento not long afterwards. - California State Railroad Museum, 000166 access
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After SP worked out most of the bugs - including conversion to distillate fuel that was less costly and combustible - the 70 foot cars proved to be quite utilitarian, with most holding on to the mid-1930's. Before age caught up with them, they proved to be more reliable than the 1929-30 EMC/Brills. So few suitable assignments for motor cars existed by then that the relative handful of modern cars could largely cover them.
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