The RGS Story, Vol 12 by McCoy et. al. has some information on the Victor Miller cars which is a missing link to a document that I copied from the National Archives.
The document, in part, provides:
ARMY TRANSPORT SERVICE, Sept. 17, 1942, TO: COLONEL WEED
Para. 1. Railway equipment for use by railhead detachment at Skagway is as follows.
7 Locomotives [description of D&RGW K-28 locos follows]
7 Tenders [description of D&RGW K-28 tenders follows]
1 Snow Plow [description of D&RGW Rotary ON follows]
1 Ditcher [description of D&RGW OW follows]
Approx. 28 box cars and 12 gondolas.
Para. 2. The Transportation Office advise that shipping of this equipment is being held up pending reinforcement of dock facilities at Skagway . . .
Para. 3. This equipment is all narrow gauge.
Para. 4. The Transportation Office will keep us advised . . .
/s/ S. H. Varnes, Captain, Transportation Corps
[end of document]
The 7 D&RGW locos and tenders, D&RGW snowplow, and D&RGW ditcher all made it to the WP&YR, but not any so-called “D&RGW” freight cars. In October 1942, AFTER the date of the letter, the Army purchased some cars from Pullman, and the WP&YR detachment got 50 boxcars and 20 flat cars from this October Pullman purchase. But this letter could not possibly be referring to the later-purchased Pullman cars.
RGS Story, Vol. 12, reveals that up until 3 days before this letter was written, exactly 40 of the Miller cars had been delivered to the D&RGW. However, almost all of the Miller cars were still boxcars as of that date. The D&RGW was in the chain of custody as these cars went from the RGS to the Army. Another 10 cars were received about 3 days before this letter, but there may have been a 3-day information lag between the D&RGW and Capt. Varnes.
Because of the correspondence of the 40 cars with the dates, it looks like the “Approx. 28 box cars and 12 gondolas” reference in the letter is referring to the Miller cars that had been delivered as of that date, minus the 3-day lag. What’s more, if you apply the ultimately delivered 50 boxcar to 20 flat car ratio to the 40 cars delivered to the D&RGW as of that date, you would get 28 boxcars, 11 flat cars, and one odd car, practically the same ratio that appears in the letter.
The info in the RGS Story, Vol. 12 book makes it look like the original plan was to use the Miller cars to supply the WP&YR detachment with 50 boxcars and 20 gondolas, the intended 20 gondolas rebuilt from the Miller cars. But the October 1942 deal with Pullman caused the Miller cars to get bumped to Hawaii. Also, about the same time as the "bump," the Army decided to deliver flat cars instead of gondolas.
Lastly, there is the photo on the top of page 52 of Hawaiian Railway Album by Treiber. There is a bad order flat car in the photo, USA No. 437502 or 437503. This car originally was a gondola, and its capacity is between 25,000 lbs. (which is what the Miller cars were) and 34,000 lbs. War Department Circular No. 39, February 9, 1942 (copy is at Carlisle Barracks) reveals that the primary digit of “4” was applied to gondolas, and the secondary digit “3” was applied to cars with a capacity between 25,000 and 34,000 lbs. So the initial digits “43” tell you that this flat car was originally a gondola with that capacity. This car was almost certainly one of the Miller cars, cut down to a flat car.
Robert
