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Does anyone have info on the name and route of the Southern streamliner (one of the first diesels) that I believe ran from Memphis to DC via Knoxville and Johnson City, TN somewhere in the early '40's. Someone told me they thought it was the Hummingbird. Any any info appreciated.
jebradley Member # 606
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That would be the Tennesseean, one of the South's first streamliners. It had a "divided" (race-segregated) coach plus the usual dining, sleeping, observation cars. It was the butt of Donald Steffee's famous remark in RAILROAD Magazine's "Revitalizing Passenger Traffic" article in the late forties: "It takes as long to go from Washington to Memphis on the Southern as it does to go from Bangor, Maine, to Memphis on other roads". And you know, he was just about right ! Compare the SR train with Bangor-Boston on MEC-B&M, Boston-Effingham, Illinois on the Boston & Albany-New York Central via Cleveland, plus the Illinois Central to Memphis. The Tennessean's route was pretty circuitous, running south to Lynchburg, VA, then S.W. on the N&W to the SR again at Bristol, down to Chattanooga before turning northwest through a corner of Mississippi to Memphis. I don't know offhand how long it ran but it would have been a victim of (probably) Dennis Brosnan's campaign to kill passenger service, which was particularly effective in the Western South - Ky., Tenn., Alabama. .. Others can no doubt add more information and their recollections. Jim Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.
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