WINTERRAIL MEMORIES Steam and early diesel trains dashing through the snow INGLES COLOR CLASSICS My three-week Christmastime 1965 odyssey began December 12 on Southern 41, the Peli- can, at Knoxville. I couldn’t both get a photo and climb aboard, so subbing for the FP7/E7A up front on that drab Sunday is this FP7/E7B tandem four weeks later, on January 8, 1966. A long Louisville & Nashville Georgian, look- Worthy of remark was dining on the Georgian in Duncan Hines. The diner, pictured in Louisville ing like the one I rode into St. Louis six days in 1968, was scrapped, but an ex-SP car honors it at the Bowling Green (Ky.) railroad museum. before except for having E7s and not Fs, rolls Tom Smart photo, author’s collection past Union Station December 19, 1965, prior to backing into a track under the trainshed. took more senior-level transportation Dearborn, Mich., and back to Knoxville courses than graduate classes. Academic for the winter 1966 quarter. I would pa- benefits aside, my nine months in Knox- tronize five railroads and ride six trains. LONG WAY HOME ormally, most college students ville acquainted me with many new rail- A “trip report” I wrote at the time began, heading home for Christmas roads and locations in the Southeast, and “Spurning the airlines on the theory that would take the fastest, most di- I made several new friends, some of I can try them when the trains are gone N rect way back to their parents’ whom I remain in touch with today. in a few years, all vacation travel was place, right? Free food and accessible U.T. was on the quarter system, which once again by rail.” That observation was laundry facilities, hometown friends, and meant a three-week “Christmas vaca- a logical one, the way passenger service for Christmas all that. This was not the case for me in tion” after the fall term. My 1961 black was going, especially in the South. 1965. After my graduation from Mac- Ford Galaxie had been acting up, so after I left Knoxville on the rainy afternoon Riding from east Tennessee to Detroit — via St. Louis — in 1965 Murray College in central Illinois that visiting the Southern Railway station to of Sunday, December 12, on Southern June, I enrolled for one year in the Uni- buy train tickets for a triangle trip home train 41, the Pelican, a Washington–New gave evidence of the passenger train’s decline versity of Tennessee’s transportation pro- to Detroit (via St. Louis and Chicago), I Orleans secondary run that, along with gram for graduate work, and I spent the parked it for the duration on Highland the Birmingham Special and Tennessean 1965–66 school year in Knoxville. My Avenue opposite the home in which I (which went to Memphis), operated over By J. David Ingles • Photos by the author Bachelor of Science degree in Business- rented a room. The rail odyssey would the Norfolk & Western via Lynchburg Economics at a small liberal-arts college take me back to central Illinois to visit and Bristol, Va. I’d photographed the had few specialty courses, so at U.T., I friends, then to my parents’ home in Pelican numerous times during the 34 CLASSIC TRAINS WINTER 2014 www.ClassicTrainsMag.com CLASSIC TRAINS 35 © 2017 Classic Trains magazine. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. www.ClassicTrainsMag.com of the old Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, by this time part of L&N for eight years. Train 54’s 12-minute dwell time was sufficient for me to note the consist. Behind FP7 611 and two F7Bs were 14 cars: four various head-end; a dorm- combine; Chicago & Eastern Illinois sleeper Florida Flowers, with 4 sections, 4 roomettes, 1 compartment, and 5 dou- On my December ’65 ride on 22, IC business ble bedrooms, for Chicago (C&EI han- car No. 1 (pictured in 1963) was on the rear. dled the Chicago section north of Evans- ville, Ind.); three Chicago coaches (one C&EI); a diner; lounge Cincinnati Club; autumn. On this day, we left Knoxville coach 3264 for St. Louis; and two 35 minutes late at 2:45 p.m. with a typi- 6-section/6-roomette/4-double-bedroom cal consist: FP7 and E7 for power (6146 sleepers, Plantation Pine and Georgia and 2919), four mail or express cars, two Pine. My roomette was in Plantation coaches, and New York–Chattanooga Pine; the car behind it, for Louisville, 14-roomette/4-double-bedroom sleeper would come off at Nashville in L&N’s Shenandoah Valley. The train’s interior great pre-midnight car exchange with was clean but mostly empty of passen- the New Orleans–Cincinnati Humming gers. We arrived at Chattanooga Termi- Bird, for which 35 minutes were allotted. nal Station (now the “Choo Choo” hotel Dinner in the diner was not of the and conference complex) on time at 5:30. “nothing could be finer” category — Why go southwest first? My initial even, ironically, out of Chattanooga. The Illinois Central’s Green Diamond, train 22, is ready to pull out from under the St. Louis Union destination was Springfield, Ill., and food and service were good, but it was a Station trainshed in December 1966, a year after my trip. Up front is E8 4027, whose lower while I could have gone north to Cincin- lonely experience, as I was the only pa- area of orange paint was, with the exception of one B unit, deeper than on all other IC E units. nati and then west to St. Louis, I’d ridden tron to answer “last call.” Perhaps the Walt Peters photo, author’s collection Knoxville–Cincinnati several times and meal’s best aspect was the 48-seat car it- I’d also ridden B&O’s Cincinnati–St. self: 2799 Duncan Hines, ACF-built in Louis line. (Always seeking a new train 1946 for the Georgian and named for the Christmas 1965: 6 trains, 5.5. BabysittingBabysitting andand goodgood steaksteak or route, I would try Louisville & Nash- pioneer in rating restaurants for travelers. New York Central No. 356, Twilight Limited ville’s coach-only overnight former Fla- Hines (1880–1959) was a native of 5 railroads, 1,540 miles Chicago–Detroit, Dec. 21 3 NYC GP9s, car count not available mingo to Cincinnati once, in the spring.) Bowling Green, Ky., on L&N’s Nashville– My “something new” for this trek was Louisville–Cincinnati route. His ratings Plymouth NYC DETROIT L&N’s Atlanta–St. Louis Georgian, due work came from the inconsistent food 4.4. DrivingDriving northnorth Elgin out of Chattanooga a little before 9 p.m. he’d had as a traveling salesman, and he CHICAGO M I C H I G A N C&O Jacksonville-Elgin, Ill., Dec. 20 Toledo Since my layover was three-hours-plus, I added a lodging guide and became na- Charlie Mote’s auto, via U.S. 36, U.S. 51, U.S. 66, Illinois 47 first went to L&N’s Union Station on 9th tionally known through a newspaper Street and made sure the Georgian’s din- column. Today a dining car with that 6.6. NowNow aa C&O-B&OC&O-B&O efforteffort Dwight ing car still would be open after depar- name is part of a four-car display at the C&O-B&O Cincinnatian ture. It would be. I checked my luggage, restored L&N station and Railpark Mu- Bloomington I N D I A N A Plymouth, Mich.–Toledo–Cincinnati, Jan. 2, 1966 then walked a few blocks north to take in seum in Bowling Green, but it’s not the C&O 1414/B&O 1424 (E7As), 9 cars SPRINGFIELD Decatur a movie. Don’t ask me what film it was. real thing. The car I dined in was cut up, Jacksonville Dayton O H I O Returning to Union Station, I found and the museum displays an ex-South- I L L I N O I S B&O the previously deserted and tomb-like ern Pacific car. CINCINNATI IC head house alive with patrons. Notably After dinner I relaxed in the half-full absent, of course, was Western & Atlan- lounge car for a bit, but I was in my Our December 19 St. Louis photography included these subjects from the 21st Street bridge: ST. LOUIS Mount 7. Familiar overnight finale Vernon 7. Familiar overnight finale tic 4-4-0 No. 3, the General, whisked roomette and asleep before our 11 p.m. MoPac Second No. 2, the south Texas section of the Texas Eagle, arrives (top) as N&W’s City M O . Southern No. 35, Carolina Special from its display platform under the cover arrival in Nashville, although I awak- of Kansas City, at right, heads west. Before that, N&W’s Wabash Cannon Ball (center) departs, Evansville Lexington Cincinnati-Knoxville, Jan. 2-3 Two F units, car count not available of darkness in 1959 by W&A successor ened long enough to note the time. I again, as a week before, separate from the Blue Bird and again with ex-Wabash E8 3815. Next, 3.3. On-timeOn-time forfor thethe bossboss L&N for restoration and return to ser- awoke briefly again, in Madisonville, Ky., N&W’s mixed 214 from Council Bluffs, Iowa (above), due at 8:15 and having shed most of its Illinois Central No. 22, Green Diamond K E N T U C K Y SOU vice for a tour marking the Civil War’s as we pulled out at 1:45, on time, but I’d freight cars, comes in as the long L&N Georgian (at right) prepares to back into Union Station.