No doubt about it, that combine is a former Long Island RR "ping-pong" MU combine. There remains some question to this day whether this class of cars was named for the way they seemed to shuttle endlessly back and forth, OR for their "less than stellar" riding characteristics. Either way, the storage portion of these cars was used primarily to distribute New York City newspapers out to Long Island. The Trainman tossing off bundles of newspapers at various stops. Some had round windows in their end bulkheads, others did not.
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Close, it was a commuter/suburban service combine for the Chicago & North Western Railroad. Similar to the Long Island cars in design and purpose, but a bit farther west. The C&NW had a fleet of these built in combine and standard coach versions in the 1930s and used them in the greater Chicago area. C&NW retired and sold the car to the Marquette & Huron Mountain Railroad up in Michigan. The Whitewater Valley Railroad purchased the car when the M&HM was liquidated and operated it for a number of years. There is currently evidence showing of all three paint schemes.
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OK, but they ARE incredibly similar, as if built from the same set of plans. That different heritage would explain the lack of round end window(s) some of which were glass and others blanked off with steel plates. I imagine their use was probably pretty similar , distributing CHICAGO papers to the suburbs.
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