The Mountain View, one of the two tail cars from the 1947 Broadway Limited, is now at The South Carolina Railroad Museum. The car arrived in Rockton on a local Norfolk Southern freight at around 1:00 PM on Friday, Nov. 25, 2005. Less than 24 hours later, it was in service as a first-class car for the Museum's annual Santa Trains. Naturally, I forgot my camera both days. The Santa Trains continue on Dec. 3 and 10.The Mountain View was part of the 1947 restyling of the famous NYC to Chicago Broadway Limited. The train's interior was designed by noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who also designed the streamlining for the PRR's T1 steam locomotives and GG1 electrics.In addition to bringing up the Broadway's markers, the Mountain View also saw use on New York to Florida trains such as the Silver Meteor. This gives the car a connection to South Carolina. After retirement as a revenue car, the Mountain View entered private car service and continues to be used in this way.The Mountain View is privately owned by a SCRM volunteer. It's fully Amtrak certified and can even operate at 110mph on the Northeast Corridor. It will be based at the Museum, and will be used as a first-class car on the Museum's demonstration train excursions when not chartered out. For the Museum's full schedule, please see our website at http://www.scrm.org.

Matt,I think the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has a sister car tlo yours. That probably have some history on its travels if you need some.They are good looking cars, that's for sure!Ted Miles

They do (Mr. Bell? Mr. Moedinger? Anyone else from Strasburg/RMPA?). From what the current owner of the Mountain View tells me, the sister car is in pretty bad shape. The Mountain View has been in more or less continuous service since retirement as a revenue car, the other one (I forget the name, Model Railroader had drawings of it as part of a full-color foldout of the whole 1947 Broadway Limited a while back) was retired and parked.The Mountain View is a little rough around the edges -- some rust and peeling paint here and there, some bubbled veneer inside, a missing radio in Bedroom B, etc. My first look inside was before Kelvin cleaned her up -- NS was none too gentle, and she'd had drunken Carolina football fans in and around her for a month and a half. By Saturday, though, the car was spotless. Made me glad I was conductor and had to protect the shove back to Rockton -- that was a great excuse to ride in the Mountain View!

The car's name is Tower View. Donated to the museum by Mr. Levin I believe?J

Congratulations on becoming the new home for the Mountain View. Really a great car. I had the pleasure of owning her in the late '60's-early 70's and made many great trips aboard her including the Golden Spike Centennial Limited where she carried the markers from New York City to Salt Lake City & return. During that trip John Wayne rode with us on the last day into Salt Lake and I've got so great photos of him enjoying himself in the MV's observation room with Bob&Graham Claytor and other guests. I'll try and dig them out and send them to you. I'm confident you'll get much good service from her. Please send me your snail-mail address so I can forward the photos should I be able to locate them. Good luck-Ross Rowland

Incorrect, according to the RR Museum of Pa. website:Pennsylvania Railroad Tower ViewPullman. 1948. Observation-Sleeper. PRR Class POS21. Built for PRR Broadway Limited. Was No. 8420 but never stenciled. Purchased 1/1970 from Penn Central. Unrestored.Pennsylvania Railroad Scioto Rapids Budd Co. 1949. Sleeper. 10cpt-6dbr. Gift 4/1997 of Bennett Levin. Ex-Penn Central, Amtrak. Unrestored.If I'm to believe this information, the Tower View was acquired from Penn Central for the collection as the museum was being planned, before Amtrak was an issue. I haven't see anything else but basic stabilization and rust prevention since, and not enough of that; I've long harbored the speculation that the Museum/PHMC had hoped that the Mountain View would be offered to them so they could in turn offer the Tower View to someone who wanted a PRR obs shell to customize. Never bloody likely, apparently, but one can hope.

Ahh! My mistake. Thanks for the correction Sandy.J

Thanks for the good wishes! Any pix would be most welcome.The Museum's PO box is:SC RR MuseumPO Box 643Winnsboro SC, 29180If you don't like sending stuff to a PO box, here's my s-mail:Matt Conrad103 Fraser St.Winnsboro, SC 29180