Passenger Cars Tied Down at Knoxville SOU station

: Knoxville TN. Nov. 1970

The string of passenger equipment sleeping at the station invited me to the train ride that never came true.

This business car PCS No. unknown was bringing up the marker on the line of passenger cars, along with SOU business car #25.

SOU #25 was built by American Car & Foundry in 1906 as CNO&TP #100. It was renumbered to #2 in 1917, to #5 in 1920 and to #25 in 1950[1]. The car was last assigned to R. B. Mddkiff in 1953. It was retired before 1971.

A string of passenger cars, some with the DAVID WITHERSPOON seal, are owned by a local scrap dealer David Alexander Witherspoon(1916 - 1987) at that time[2]. The exact car with the seal is the former L&N sleeping car 3468 Whispering Pine built in 1953 by Pullman-Standard.

On the other day, gentlemen on another shiny business car tied down at the station invited me to their car. After hearing my "YEAH!" to their question "Do you like trains?", they treated me with a bar of chocolate.

revised, Mar. 3, 2015

revised, Nov. 10, 2021

[1] Southern Raiway Business Car Assignments
[2] Hayneshopcat (2010) Re: Can Anyone ID This Passenger Car?, Railway Preservation News;


留置されていた客車には入ることができた。寝台車で、日本でいう個室A寝台のベッドにはまだシーツがかかっていた。

留置車の端にはbusiness carが連結されていた。別の日、駅に遊びに行くとピカピカに磨かれた同じようなbusiness carが止まっていた。中の紳士の「汽車は好きか」という問いに「うん」と答えると招き入れ、チョコレートで饗応してくれた。