Yes, YW does stand for Yreka Western. I note that the link to the Galveston museum website provided early in the thread lists the YW as one of the roads this car operated on...I don't think that ever happened. Kyle Railways owned the YW outright and held a 50% stake in the OP&E, with the other half belonging to Bohemia Corp (operator of the sawmill at Culp Creek that provided the bulk of the railroad's freight business). I think a lot of the equipment used on the OP&E passenger excursions may have been technically owned by the YW and leased to the OP&E, which would explain the association with the YW. The OP&E used the Budd on days when they did not have enough patronage to warrant pulling out the full excursion train set.

By 1978 passenger levels had reached the point that the full train set ran almost every day, which severely limited the #100's operations. That year the Moody Foundation came calling in search of historic equipment for their then proposed Galveston tranportation museum. The OP&E sold them the Budd car, a two truck Shay (#112) that I think had come out of North Carolina, steam locomotive #5 (ex-Magma Arizona 2-8-0, purchased by the OP&E in 1972 for the excursion business), four heavyweight passenger and sleeping cars, six baggage cars, three wooden freight cars, and one wood caboose. That is how the Budd got to Galveston.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV