Danville & Western Railway

Passenger Equipment

Passenger Equipment of the Danville & Western

As far as is known, all the passenger equipment on the D&W was of wooden construction, and at least some came from the Pennsylvania RR.  Most of the cars had open platforms.  While there is no hard evidence available to date, I suspect that equipment was painted Pullman green with gold lettering, with black roof and underframe.  That would conform to Southern Ry's standard pracices, which were generally followed elsewhere on the D&W, and on other Southern owned short lines.  The partial photograph of coach #124 below shows that "DANVILLE & WESTERN" or "DANVILLE AND WESTERN" was painted on the letter board, with a small car number above the truck on the right side of the body.

According to Lucius Beebe, by the 1940s the D&W was using old Southern passenger equipment.  He mentions a Southern passenger car and a NO&NE baggage car.

These are the cars listed in the 1916 ICC valuation and 1917 Official Equipment Register.  Every attempt has been made to match the sometimes conflicting information to any known Pennsylvania RR or Southern Ry cars.  Potential matches are indicated on the chart.  The remaining cars may have come from other sources, or the data may be incorrect.  In either case, until more is known, Nothing definite can be said of the cars other than their number.

Note:

1. PRR diagram length indicares OK length as 60'7 1/2".  This is the closest match found to date to the ICC Valuation, but does not agree with the OER's statement that ALL D&W cars were shorter than 60'.
2. If #74 was 59'11" long (as is likely given that the OER shows it being less than 60'), it could have been a PRR class OF, OG, or OH, which the diagrams show to be 60' long.  Cars 112-114 are shown 1" shorter than the possible corresponding PRR diagram.  Somebody's ruler may have been inaccurate.
3. Coach #124 is the only car for which a photograph has been found, dated 1940.  It is not listed in either the ICC Valuation or OER.  It was one of three coaches purchased from the RF&P in 1930
   

For drawings of PRR wooden passenger cars, refer to the passenger car diagrams on prr.railfan.net