Heater cars

Heater cars were used when it got very cold and passenger car needs could not be met by the locomotive itself or they only had freight units that did not have steam heat capabilities for the passenger cars.

 

Here are 2 views of what I was able to find in my collections and as you can see they are both different. Hornby has come out with GN, NP and SP&S heater cars but they may look different that the real ones. I suspect they were all cobbled together by the shop forces on what was available to them at the time.