1902 business car PB-1
edited by David Barth, 12 December 2009.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado 80216. Photos were taken in May 2009.
This wood-bodied rail car was built by Pullman in September 1902 as a parlor-lounge-observation car, number 301,
named “Iowa.” In January to August 1914 it was acquired by the Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) railroad.
In January 1930 it was acquired by Colorado & Southern (C&S). The wooden body was sheathed in steel and given
steel-framed trucks. It was converted from a parlor-lounge-observation car to a business car and used by the
Vice President of the C&S. Although there are accounts that President Herbert Hoover used this car during 1929
to 1932, that is unlikely because the car was undergoing conversion at the time.
In May 1949 air conditioning was added, and at some time later, it was sold to Richard McKinley and became car
number P81.
In September 1967 it was sold to Mr. Sol Polk of Franklin Park, Illinois, retaining the P81 number.
In 1968 it became “Illinois Sesquicentennial,” car number PB-1, in celebration of Illinois becoming a state in 1818.
It is not known if “PB-1 has any relationship to the earlier number, “P81” which has a graphic resemblance.
The car was in service as late as the mid-1960’s and was photographed in Denver’s Union Station on July 7,
1974.
Information courtesy of Al Frank, long-time Forney Museum volunteer and consultant for volunteer projects.
