Support this website by joining the Silver Rails TrainWeb Club for as little as $1 per month. Click here for info.

This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/elso to TrainWeb.US/elso.

Best viewed on monitor set to 800 x 600 high colour

SPERRY RAIL SERVICE

ALL-TIME FLEET ROSTER
PART 1 - THE BIG YELLOW CARS

Last revised February 28, 2010

Type Road No.     Builder      Bldr. No. Built Prev. Owner/No.    Notes

 X      1        Kalamazoo                1927      New          To ARA 1
HT     40     Fitzgibbon-Crisp            1934      New          To SRS 126A 8/37
HT     41        Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 106A       Destroyed by fire 11/37
HT     42        Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 103A       Retired 12/38
HT     43        Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 112A       Wrecked 12/38
HT     44        Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 104A       Destroyed by fire 1/38

D-D   101        Kalamazoo                1927     ARA 1         Disposition unknown
D-D   102        Kalamazoo                1928      New          Towed by MC-501.
                                                                 Wrecked on MILW 9/29
D-D   103        Kalamazoo                1929      New          Towed by 502.
                                                                 Used as part of triple unit from 3/34
                                                                  & renumbered 109B
MC    103A       Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 502        To SRS 42 (1931)
D-D   104        Kalamazoo                1929      New          Towed by 503.
                                                                 This car and 104A used in Europe 6/32-6/35.
                                                                 Retired 6/35
MC    104A       Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 503        Double unit consisting of a motor car and a
                                                                  detector car.
                                                                 This car and 104 used in Europe 6/32-6/35.
                                                                 To SRS 44 (1931)
 S    105        J.G. Brill               1929      New          To SRS 120 
D-D   106        Kalamazoo                1929      New          Towed by 504.
                                                                 Retired in 1933 then used in 1935 as 110B(II)
MC    106A       Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 504        To SRS 41 (1931)
 S   (107)       J.G. Brill               1930      New          See note 3.
 X    108           SRS                   1930      New          Experimental hand test car
                                                                 Disposition unknown 
D-T   109        Kalamazoo                1930      New          Towed by 509.
                                                                 Used as part of triple unit from 3/34
                                                                  & renumbered 109C
MC    109A       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 509        Used as tow car in triple unit 109A-B-C.
                                                                 Retired 8/4/39
D-T   109B       Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 103        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Retired 8/4/39
D-T   109C       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 109        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Retired 8/4/39
D-T   110        Kalamazoo                1930      New          Towed by 510.
                                                                 Used as part of triple unit from 6/34
                                                                  & renumbered 110C
MC    110A       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 510        Used as tow car in triple unit 110A-B-C.
                                                                 Retired 12/35
D-T   110B(I)    Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 112        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 To SRS 114B
D-T   110B(II)   Kalamazoo                1929    SRS 106        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Retired 12/35
D-D   110C       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 110        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Retired 12/35
D-D   112        Kalamazoo                1930      New          Towed by 512.
                                                                 Used as part of triple unit from 7/34
                                                                  & renumbered 110B(I)
MC    112A       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 512        To SRS 43 4/35 
D-T   114        Kalamazoo                1930      New          Towed by motor car 514.
                                                                 Used as part of triple unit from 2/34
                                                                  & renumbered SRS 114C
MC    114A       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 514        Used as tow car in triple unit 114A-B-C.
                                                                 Wrecked on PRR 2/8/37
D-T   114B       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 110B(I)    Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Wrecked on PRR 2/8/37
D-T   114C       Kalamazoo                1930    SRS 114        Part of triple unit.
                                                                 Wrecked on PRR 2/8/37
 S    115        J.G. Brill               1930      New          To SRS 122 6/35
 S    116        J.G. Brill               1930      New          Photo of car in 'History of the J.G. Brill Co.' p. 156.
                                                                 To SRS 121 6/35     
 S    117      St. Louis-EMC   1368C173   1927   B&O 6005        To SRS 8/34.
                                                                 Destroyed by fire on the N&W following a collision
                                                                 with an automobile on 4/12/56
 S    118      St. Louis-EMC   1368C172   1927   B&O 6004        To SRS 10/33.
                                                                 Retired for scrapping
 S    119      St. Louis-EMC   1368C171   1927   B&O 6003        To SRS 10/33.
                                                                 Converted to diesel-electric in 1960.
                                                                 Named 'Bob Owen'
 S    120        J.G. Brill               1929    SRS 105        To Remington Arms 6/53
 S    121        J.G. Brill               1930    SRS 116        To Remington Arms 6/53
 S    122        J.G. Brill               1930    SRS 115        Scrapped 1955
 S    123      St. Louis-EMC   1386A369   1928    LV 14          Acquired by SRS 5/36.
                                                                 Converted to diesel-electric in 1960.
                                                                 Retired June 2005
 S    124      St. Louis-EMC   1452241    1925    LV 20          Acquired by SRS 6/37.
 S    125      St. Louis-EMC   1376135    1925    LV 26          Acquired by SRS 6/37.
                                                                 Converted to diesel-electric in 1958.
                                                                 Used in Europe 1961-3, see note 1.
 S    126      St. Louis-EMC   1352141    1927  C&NW 9900        Acquired by SRS 8/37.
                                                                 Scrapped at a Charleston MA scrapyard 2004
HT    126A    Fitzgibbon-Crisp            1934   SRS 40          Ex 40 8/37.
                                                                 Wrecked 10/37
 S    127      St. Louis-EMC   1368D128   1926  B&M 1151/151     Acquired by SRS 8/39.
                                                                 Named 'R.R. Revell'
 S    128      St. Louis-EMC   1386A363   1928    LV 15          Acquired by SRS 8/39.
                                                                 Named 'D.A. Link'
 S    129      St. Louis-EMC   1376A133   1925    LV 29          Acquired by SRS 8/39.
                                                                 Named 'P.E. Kennedy'
 S    130      St. Louis-EMC   1376136    1925    LV 28          Acquired by SRS 7/40.
                                                                 Named 'Jim Stroup'
 S    131      St. Louis-EMC   1376134    1925    LV 27          Acquired by SRS 10/41.
                                                                 Currently out of service at St. Louis.
 S    132      St. Louis-EMC   1365138    1925   SAL 2003        Acquired by SRS 1/42.
                                                                 Named 'Jimmy Langdon'.
                                                                 Currently out of service at St. Louis.
 S    133      St. Louis-EMC   1365137    1925   SAL 2002        Acquired by SRS 4/43.
                                                                 Wrecked on B&M at Winnisquam NH 12/4/62.
                                                                 Photo exists of car in Charleston MA scrapyard 8/25/63
 S    134      St. Louis-EMC   1459261    1928   SAL 2022        Acquired by SRS 4/45.
                                                                 Named 'W.J. Gallagher'
 S    135      St. Louis-EMC   1459262    1928   SAL 2023        Acquired by SRS 7/45.
                                                                 Retired c.2003.
                                                                 To Danbury Railway Museum, Danbury, CT 2004.
 S    136        J.G. Brill    22547      1928   NYC M-11        In service for SRS 4/19/48.
 S    137      St. Louis-EMC   1360C117   1925 SOO X1450, nee M1 In service for SRS 12/1/70.
 S    138      St. Louis-EMC              1928    RI 9057        In service for SRS 9/20/71.
                                                                 Named 'W.R. Burton'
 S    139       SRS-Brooklyn                     C&NW 300890     In service for SRS 5/5/72
                                                                 Currently out of service at St. Louis.
 S    140       SRS-Danbury               1966       New         Built from an R-33 subway car shell.
                                                                 To Australia in 9/76.
                                                                 Retired c.1990 and stored.
                                                                 Moved to the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum,
                                                                 Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia in May 2000.
 S    141      St. Louis-EMC   1475326    1928    RI 9050(2)     In service for SRS 11/19/72.
                                                                 To Australia in 3/73.
                                                                 Car later returned to the US.
                                                                 Named 'Elmer Jackson'.
                                                                 Repainted in latest scheme between 2002 & 2005
                                                                  and re-named 'E.B. Jackson'.
 S    142       SRS-Brooklyn                     C&NW 300882     In service for SRS 5/5/74
                                                                 Currently out of service at St. Louis.
 S    143       SRS-Brooklyn              10/74      New         5-Star body.
                                                                 Currently out of service at St. Louis.
                                                                 Named 'Dick Penwell'
 S    144       SRS-Brooklyn             7/7/75      New         5-Star body
 S    145       SRS-Danbury               8/75       New         5-Star body
                                                                 Named 'Bob McGuire'
 S    146       SRS-Brooklyn              12/75      New         Hillebrand body
 S    147       SRS-Brooklyn              6/76       New         Hillebrand body.
                                                                 Rebuilt to 200 in 1999
      148       SRS-Danbury               1985       New         Named 'Jack Finney'
      149       SRS-Danbury               1986       New

      200       SRS-Danbury               1999    SRS 147        To Sweden in 5/99
                 Image courtesy of the Bahnbilder aus Magdeburg und Umgebung website.


 S    402          Mack        1010       1954    NYNH&H 19      Acquired 7/58, see note 4.
                                                                 All untrasonic.
                                                                 Retired in 1985, see note 5
 S    403          Mack        1009       1954    NYNH&H 18      Acquired 9/58, see note 4.


 S   X-107    J.G. Brill-SRS              1930    NYC X-8015     see note 3

ROSTER NOTES====
This roster, compiled from a couple of sources, is not up to date. It should be noted that Sperry does not reuse or duplicate fleet numbers.

A number of cars also carry a name on the front of the car. These names honor long service employees.

1 - SRS 125 was shipped to Europe in 1961 to conduct rail testing there. It returned to the United States on board the S.S. Le Moyne D'Iberville,
being unloaded in New York on May 14, 1963.

2 - All Sperry Rail Service cars have been re-powered with Caterpillar engines.

3 - Following publication of a Sperry Rail Service roster in the January 1979 Railfan magazine, Tom DeJoseph of Sperry wrote the following comment (edited):
107 did not exist as a Sperry Car. This number was used as a production number for a Brill Car that was delivered to Sperry. Sperry merely installed the
defect detection equipment in the car for the New York Central Railroad (NYC road number X8015).

In 1969, Sperry purchased X-8015 from the Penn Central. It was then renumbered back to its original production number with the "X" signifying both the
NYC heritage as well as differentiating it as an engineering vehicle.

X-107 was donated to the Railroad Museum of New England (aka Naugatuck RR), Waterbury, CT, USA in 1987. Plans are to restore the car as a doodlebug.

4 - SRS 402 and 403 were converted from Mack FCD Type ll railbuses.

5 - SRS 402 suffered fire damage in 1985 in the Windsor Tunnel while returning to the USA from Canada and was retired.

Abbreviations:-

ARA = American Railway Association

B&M = Boston & Maine

B&O = Baltimore & Ohio

C&NW = Chicago & North Western

CN = Canadian National

EMC = Electro-Motive Corp.

HTT = Harsco Track Technologies

LV = Lehigh Valley

MILW = Milwaukee Road

MP = Missouri Pacific

N&W = Norfolk & Western

NYC = New York Central

NYNH&H = New York, New Haven & Hartford

RI = Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific

SAL = Seaboard Air Line

SLSF = St. Louis-San Francisco

SRS = Sperry Rail Service

UP = Union Pacific

Car types:-

D-D = Double unit detector car

D-T = Double unit detector car, later used as part of a triple-unit car

DUO-1 = One man ultrasonic joint tester

DUO-3 = One man ultrasonic joint tester

DUO-4 = One man ultrasonic joint tester, electric drive

HRB = Hi-rail bus, diesel-electric drive

HT = Hand test car, self propelled for verification of defect indications

MC = Motor car (tow unit) for double or triple-unit detector cars

S = Single unit self-propelled detector car

X = Experimental

PART 2 - HI-RAIL TRUCKS, ETC.

Support this website by joining the Silver Rails TrainWeb Club for as little as $1 per month. Click here for info.