Greetings,

Can someone identify this car and provide details regarding it. http://www.simpson.edu/~tinder/Sep9PMBo ... p9PM6.JPEG

The car was at Atlantic, Iowa as part of the Purple Martin (from my understanding) and had TVRM painted on it. Perhaps the TVRM folks know?

Thanks in advance,
Gerald W. Kopiasz

Gerald,

That car is the coach-observation car that was used on the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway's homebuilt streamliner, the City of Memphis. I can't dig up my references at the moment, but the City of Memphis was created in 1946 and ran from Nashville to Memphis by way of Bruceton. I don't remember when the car was originally built, but it was rebuilt to its present configuration in 1946. The locomotive that was streamlined for the train was NC 535, a Pacific which formerly carried the name "Marie". Later on, a second Pacific was semi-streamlined and assigned to the train. Most of the cars from the City survived to present day.

The car became L & N 2599 after the merger with the NC in 1957. The L & N used the car for special events and the like.

I think about one car of each type used in the original City of Memphis is still around. Save for the 4-6-2, but with a 4-8-4 and an NC F unit around, I think you could recreate this early homebuilt streamliner.

Are there photos available anywhere? Does TVRM still own it?

Thanks,
Gerald W. Kopiasz

Check out most any photograph of TVRM's Grand Junction Depot taken in the past few years and you'll see the observation-coach parked at the tail end of one of the yard tracks. It is not owned by TVRM but by Ed Bowers.