This report examines the Central Pacific Railroad Subsistence Car, which accompanied the CPRR Directors’ Car as its tender in the early years of this railroad’s seminal history. Based on photographic records, journalists’ accounts of this car, and the surviving coach for which it was originally built to serve, a factual exterior rendition and plausible interior interpretation are presented. Any historical account of the surviving Directors’ Car must necessarily include an accurate and ideally complete description of its attending Subsistence Car. The scope and purpose of the research in this report are guided by this common vision. Technical drawings of the Subsistence Car at Promontory are derived largely from the existing 1868 artifact of Coach 17. Aside from the overall car body sway, this research has confirmed and revealed the partial roof collapse.

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