Golden Sand
Built by The Budd Company in 1950 as a 44-seat coach for the Southern
Pacific Railroad (SP). The car was numbered 2378 and named “Golden Sand” for
service on the train named The Golden State. The Golden State ran between
Chicago and Los Angeles and was a joint venture between the Chicago, Rock
Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P) and the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) with
both contributing cars to the train. The
name on the car was removed in 1965 and Golden State service ended in 1968.
Golden Sand
became part of Amtrak’s heritage fleet in 1972 and was renumbered 4411. In 1981
Amtrak converted the car to a 40 seat ADA coach, added head end power (HEP) and
renumbered it 4010. Amtrak sold the car in 1995 to the Illinois Transit
Assembly. The car was rebuilt in 2002 and was available for lease from American
Rail Excursions of Sauk Village, Illinois. Mid America Railcar Leasing (MRLX)
obtained the car in 2008, renumbered it 800748, and reapplied the Golden Sand
name. The car ran on many excursions under the MRLX banner until being leased
to Iowa Pacific Holdings (IP).
From 2015 to
2017, IP briefly renamed the car “DuQuoin” while operating on the Indiana state
funded train The “Hoosier State”. When Hoosier State service ended on 2017, the
Golden Sand name was reapplied and the car went to the Orlando &
Northwestern Railway (O&NW) in Tavares, Florida for operation on the Royal
Palm excursion train. After O&NW ceased operation in 2019, Golden Sand went
to the Ohio River Scenic Railway in Tell City, Indiana. In July 2021, the car
was moved to St. Marys, Georgia for operation on the Georgia Coastal Railway’s
heritage train where it currently resides.