While driving along U.S. 52 from Charleston to Florence I observed what at first glance appeared to be an observation car located on the grounds of a closed business at Cades, S.C. The car is on the west side of the highway, probably 300 yards from the "A" line right of way. The roofline of the carbody resembles the Emerson Shops rebuilds,and the window configuration could be that of a coach. The interior of the car has no railroad furnishings. Instead there are many tables and chairs set up like a dining room. One end of the car has a closed vestibule end. The door is stenciled "air conditioned car" and "chair car". the other end of the car has an open end platform with railing, but the end bulkhead is solid steel with a steel plate, padlocked and hinged, offset to the left side of the car end. The car is painted dark green with Atlantic Coast Line painted in yellow above the windows. The name Florence and the number 1111 are in yellow below the windows. There were no warm bodies around that I could ask about the car. The name/number combination did not seem to be right, nor did the "observation" end, the roof of which seemed to have been chopped off instead of rounded. Does anybody know anything about this beast?

Steve Kamp

-- Steve Kamp (sakamp@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002

Answers

This coach has been moved from Cades to Lake City SC where it is positioned behind a brick building in the downtown area a few blocks north of the town's depot. As of last week it's suspended above the ground resting on wood supports until a track section is installed below it. Don't know what it's going to be used for.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), March 03, 2005.

It could be that the name Florence was where it was supposed to be scraped at initialally.Now days its not uncommon to paint the name on a car of where its going to be scrapped at.

-- V.L.Lewis (TrkInsp5F33@aol.com), March 15, 2002.

This car is an ACL class A-15 rebuilt heavyweight coach that someone modified with the "observation" end. The number 1111 was in this series of rebuilds so is most likely the car's original number. The name "Florence" was not used by the RR for this or any other coaches.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), March 15, 2002.