Pullman cars on Southern trains

[NW Mailing List]

During the early 1960s I saw the Tennessean and Birmingham Special many times at Kemper St. Station in Lynchburg.  Each carried one stainless steel Pullman. Once every other fall, the Sewanee University football team would come to play Hampden-Sydney and an additional Pullman (may have been heavy-weight) was added from Chattanooga to Monroe for the team. I believe they returned on the evening Birmingham Special.

The Pelican came through Lynchburg both ways in the middle of the night. It carried two Pullman cars both ways. The only time I saw it the Pullmans were Southern stainless steel.

As an aside,  there was another every other year football related special movement through Lynchburg. A 15 or so car extra was run from Charleston SC to Lexington to bring the entire Citadel  student body to VMI for the football game. This involved Southern, N&W, and C&O. The train came into Lynchburg on the Southern, went down the old main line to Union Station, briefly backed onto the N&W to connect with the C&O, went up the C&O to Balcony Falls, then up the N&W valley line to Buena Vista, then up the C&O branch to Lexington. Southern motive power was used for the entire trip. Coming back in the evening, it came through Union Station just after the Powhatan Arrow went east. I regret to report that there was evidence of drinking on the train as it returned!

    Raymond Smoot



On Jul 12, 2013, at 6:49 AM, "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:

After WWII, the sleeping cars on the Tennessean were Pullman-Standard stainless steel clad lightweight cars with 14 roomettes and 4 double bedrooms, lettered for urned!Southern. Other Southern trains (particularly the Crescent) ran similar cars which had the more common floorplan of 10 roomettes and 6 double bedrooms. These cars may have run on the Pelican and perhaps on the Birmingham Special. I am not aware that either car has been modeled, but Union Station Products offers sides for both cars (to be used with an ECW core kit) Unfortunately, the skirts are wrong for the Southern cars, but can be udent boycorrected with a little work.

I know from personal observation that the N&W's Budd built 10 and 6 cars ran on the Pelican (probably alternating with one of the Southern cars) Unfortunately, this car has been modeled only in brass (by Roanoke Rails) and I think NKP car offered brass sides for it at one time. (both are long out of production) I have kitbashed it from the Walthers car by removing the corrugations from the sides and making new skirts.

Earlier, the Tennessean used a heavyweight 10 section 3 double bedroom Pullman (painted aluminum to match the lightweight cars). Unfortunately, nobody has ever offered a model of this floorplan (although I have recently kitbashed it from Rivarossi parts).

The Pelican and Birmingham Special probably ran some heavyweight Pullmans as well, but offhand I am not sure what the configurations were. Possibly, one was a 10 section lounge, which also has never been offered as a model.

Jim Nichols


From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 7:15 PM
Subject: Pullman cars on Southern trains


Would any of you have any information on the Pullman sleeping cars used on the Southern passenger trains the Birmingham Special, the Pelican and the Tennessean? Also is there any corresponding models for these cars?
Lois J.Ponton
N&W steam historian
ljpli at hotmail.com<mailto:ljpli at hotmail.com>


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