[PRR-talk] PRR P70 car in Tampa!?!

[Claus Schlund (HGM)]

Hi,

I was perusing the pages of the Florida Railroad Museum, and noticed the following image there:

http://www.frrm.org/history/images/historysal12.jpg

The thing that instantly got my attention is the coach immediately behind the locomotive - I'd be willing to bet a good-sized chunk of dough that this is a PRR class P70!

The caption in the larger web page containing this image (located at http://www.frrm.org/history/sal_pg1.html ) reads as follows:

"This 2-8-0 is switching a passenger train at Tampa Union Station. Photo - Wm J. Lenoir"

So the question I have going thru my head is, what is a PRR P70 doing on the Seaboard Air Line in Tampa during the steam era?

Conjectures?

Sadly, the photo is undated, so we don't know when it was taken with any real accuracy. I'm gonna guess that this was taken during the depression years (1930's), when SAL coaches did run thru from New York to Florida on some trains - I've seen Votava photos of SAL coaches and coach-baggage combines taken on the PRR at Manhattan Transfer during those years. Maybe the PRR and the SAL had some kind of agreement where they shared the responsibility of providing coaches for service to/from Florida - in which case one might reasonably expect to see some PRR coaches on the SAL end of the run? Anyone else have any thoughts?

  -  Claus