What a History it Had

Many Sperry Rail Service cars that you would have found in the 1970s were having second lives. Such is the case with car 125, which is shown in May 1974 sitting in the McCoy Street Yard of the Erie Lackawanna in Akron.

It was built in November 1925 by St. Louis Car Company as a 60-foot doodlebug for the Lehigh Valley Railroad where it carried roster number 28.

Railroads used doodlebugs to provide passenger service on lightly-used routes. Many of those services were gone by World War II and some doodlebugs were repurposed into maintenance of way use.

This car continued to serve through the 1980s when it was replaced by a newer model of a track inspection car.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Tags: Akron, Erie Lackawanna McCoy Street Yard, Photographs of Akron railroads, Robert Farkas photography, Sperry Rail Service, Sperry railcar