C&EI train #1 with whose baggage car?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Just recieved How to Model Railroads of the 1950s most recent edition.

In the article about Passenger Trains at their peak, a photo on page 26 shows a baggage

car painted dark blue and silver aluminum but I can’t even guess as to which

railroad had an ACF 70 foot car painted like that .Anyone out there with good eyes and memory

care to help,thanks

2

I suspect L&N or MoPac as they later jointly bought and divided up the C&EI. Run-through head end cars were pretty typical…

Jim

3

I’d guess an L&N too since the two roads connected. The Wabash had blue cars with silver roofs but that came later. Though head end cars got around, I’d doubt that a Wabash car would be on the C&EI.

4

Hi Steve,

I tried enlarging the original scan of that photo to see if I could read the letter board, but no such luck. However, it is clear that the name is divided into three longer words with one short word or symbol between the second and third. That rules out LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE. If I had to guess I’d guess WESTERN RAILWAY OF ALABAMA. The Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment shows that the W of A did have a few 70-foot BE-type baggage-express cars in 1957, when that photo was made. I don’t know anything about their paint schemes, but the roads of the West Point Route did use blue and silver for their passenger diesels.

So long,

Andy

5

Andy…I answered this over on the Classic Trains forum.

Nashville, Chattanooga & St.Louis

6

Thank you, AB,

It’s kind of “obvious,” once I’d been given the right answer, that the car is in the City of Memphis/Georgian paint scheme. A similar car is shown in color on the cover of Charles Castner’s book, The Dixie Line.

So long,

Andy