City of Memphis (train)

The City of Memphis was a passenger train route operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway connecting Nashville's Nashville Union Station and Memphis, Tennessee's Memphis Union Station.

History

The City of Memphis was powered by one of the last steam locomotives ever streamlined. The six cars were all rebuilt and streamlined by the NC&StL shops from heavyweight cars. The six cars were originally Pullman Heavyweight Parlor Cars before purchase by the NC&STL for conversion to coaches in June 1941.
The six car consist had a revenue seating capacity of 204 and was built to operate on a fast five-hour schedule between Nashville and Memphis a distance of. The train set operated a daily round trip and lasted beyond the 1957 Louisville and Nashville Railroad takeover of the NC&StL, although the name was removed from the service by 1955.

Equipment

To equip the train the railroad rebuilt six heavyweight Pullman parlor cars. The resulting train consisted of a baggage-mail car, a coach-dinette-lounge, two 56-seat coaches, a dining-tavern car, and a coach-lounge-observation car. Several of the train's cars survive, including the coach-lounge-observation, which is part of the collection of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in the Chattanooga area.