Southern Pacific business car #127 "Alamo"

 

Built by Pullman (Lot 4947, Plan 7092) in June of 1926 for Mr. W.R. Scott of the Galveston Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) railroad as car 999. Between June of 1931 and June 1932, the car was transferred to the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO). The “Alamo” was originally built without air conditioning, but May 29th, 1937, the shop forces at Hardy Street Shops in Houston, TX added air conditioning to the car. Somewhere in the mid-1950's, the “Alamo” painted into the SP two-tone gray paint scheme. Up to this time, the “Alamo” was painted in the Pullman Dark Olive Green scheme with the imitation gold lettering. Early 1960, the “Alamo” was painted into the SP Simulated Stainless Steel (SSS) with scarlet red letter-boards. July 21st, 1960, the T&NO 999 was renumbered as the T&NO 127, “Alamo”. In mid-1970, the “Alamo” was painted into the new Amtrak scheme, but it only remained in this scheme for a short time before returning to the SSS. November 24th, 1975 the “Alamo” was recommended for retirement, yet retirement did not come till 1980 when the “Alamo” was retired.

In 1982, Jaime Bray purchased the SP 127 “Alamo” from the Southern Pacific Railroad(SP). The car was moved to a siding in Pasadena, TX where it sat for a few months before being moved to his private residents, about a mile and a half away. The “Alamo” resided at this location till the car was donated to the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum in 2017. Finally in February 2018, the “Alamo” was removed from its home of 35 years. It was loaded up on a specially constructed rig and hauled the 211 miles to its new home in Elmendorf, TX.