Central of Georgia Railway 390

The 390 was built in 1947 by the American Car & Foundry for the Central of Georgia Railway. It is unique among the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s collection in that it is a lightweight coach-baggage combine car, meaning it is part coach and part baggage car. The car was used on the “Nancy Hanks II”, a passenger train running between Atlanta, GA and Savannah, GA, along with coaches 661, 662, and 907, also in the TVRM collection. The car later became Southern Railway 726. During the Southern Railway Steam Excursion Program, the car became famous for being used as an audio recording car. The baggage area was used to record the audio of the many steam locomotives hard at work in the steam excursion program, including two locomotives currently in TVRM’s collection, Southern Railway 630 and Southern Railway 4501. TVRM acquired the car in 2019 from the Western Maryland Scenic Railway. The 390 was restored back to its original number and paint scheme after arriving at TVRM, and was put back into service in 2020.