Hi Lew mentioned the coal stoves on the old street cars. Fires resulted in wrecks; hot coals were dashed about the cars. In 1945, on the railroad, passenger cars were heated by coal stoves. I recall one ride in South Dakota when the only passenger car (heated by coal stove) was at the end of a long train of sheep. Also, I recall in the late 1940s, when coal dealers hawked their ware, selling coal by the bushel. The price per ton was HIGH, but the upstairs consumer had delivery to the stove. Bob Doerr in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks Please see http://www.rollanet.org/~bdoerr/contents.htm

Hey Bob, In 1945 not all railroad cars were heated by coal stoves. Nor in 1944. Probably those cars you mentioned were in the Dakotas...maybe Great Northern, Northern Pacific, the CB&Q, etc., or branch lines. Down south where I traveled from Arizona to St Louis in 1944 and then across country from Ft. McArthur, Calif. via troop trains in 1945 the cars were heated from steam, etc. Remember, trains then were pulled by steam engines so they had plenty of that. Incidentally the MoPac from Kansas City to St. Louis in June 1944 was a rolling cooker. The war kept them from repair broken air conditioners. Well -- so much for the "good" old days. George in South Central Tennessee

I joined the Air Force in 1949 and we went from St Louis to San Antonio TX and the cars had coal stoves. The cars were all wood and you could open the windows both top and bottom. They looked like they might have been built early in the 1900s. But two years later I traveled to San Francisco from St Louis by train headed for Korea and those trains were heated by steam. In Japan we took an old WW II Japanese troop train which was all wood with coal stoves to southern Japan where we flew into Kimpo AFB Korea just in time for a North Korean air raid. Art Fallbrook, CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Ude" <geoude@charter.net> To: <MO-STLOUIS-METRO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 3:05 PM Subject: Re: [StL-Metro] Coal stoves > Hey Bob, > > In 1945 not all railroad cars were heated by coal stoves. Nor in 1944. > Probably those cars you mentioned were in the Dakotas...maybe Great > Northern, Northern Pacific, the CB&Q, etc., or branch lines. Down south > where I traveled from Arizona to St Louis in 1944 and then across country > from Ft. McArthur, Calif. via troop trains in 1945 the cars were heated from > steam, etc. Remember, trains then were pulled by steam engines so they had > plenty of that. Incidentally the MoPac from Kansas City to St. Louis in > June 1944 was a rolling cooker. The war kept them from repair broken air > conditioners. Well -- so much for the "good" old days. > > George > in South Central Tennessee > > > > ==== MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List ==== > I only work on Genealogy on days that end in "Y". > >