Southern Railway Office Car 21

Office Car 21: Executive Rail Travel in the Silver Age

The Pullman Company completed the sleeping car POINT RICHMOND in May of 1926 as part of Lot 4961, which included 20 cars, classified as Plan 3584A, denoting the cars featured 10 open sections (akin to bunk beds, as found in TVRM’s 8 section CLOVER COLONY and 12 section MAITLAND) as well as 2 drawing rooms (each with private toilet annex). The POINT RICHMOND was a typical 1920s heavyweight Pullman, having opening windows, a grained interior (almost certainly walnut in the drawing rooms and likely in the sections). Only 8 years after entering service, the car was back in the shop for the installation of air conditioning in November of 1934.

Changing Times:

The POINT RICHMOND continued to serve The Pullman Company and its tens of thousands of patrons per day into the 1940s, until the divestiture in 1948, when the car was sold by Pullman to the CNO&TP, a subsidiary of the Southern Railway, and then leased back to The Pullman Company for operation and upkeep. Eventually it gained the number CNO&TP 3509 (of note TVRM’s MAITLAND became CNO&TP 3510, and Old Dominion NRHS’s McGIRTH became 3512). Shortly after the number was applied, the POINT RICHMOND was removed from service in 1952, Pullman having replaced it with more modern streamlined lightweight cars, which featured more rooms than sections, something the discerning post-war traveler preferred. The car was placed into storage in 1952.

Hayne’s Magic: Total Transformation from Pullman to Office Car

Originally it was to be converted into a baggage car at Hayne Shops, such as TVRM’s 598, 4064, or 4530 which were all rebuilt from heavyweight Pullman sleeping cars in the early 1950s. Ultimately however, the decision was made around 1955 to convert the POINT RICHMOND into an office car. The car rolled out of Hayne Shops in 1956 as Office Car 21, featuring an open rear platform, bedroom (with washroom and shower), Master Room (with washroom and shower), a public washroom (with shower), dining room, crew room (with washroom and shower), and kitchen. Externally the clerestory roof had been covered with one of Hayne’s signature turlteback roofs, the riveted sides and narrow wood-framed windows had been replaced with smooth welded sides and large sealed Adams & Westlake sashes. To top it off, a coat of Southern Railway’s No. 4 green was applied with gold Roman lettering. The car quickly became a favorite of D.W. “Bill” Brosnan, President and later Chairman of Southern Railway.

Further Alertations

A few years later the original Pullman 2410A trucks were replaced with GSC “Outside Swing Hanger” trucks, as were standard on Southern Railway Cars, and multiple different interior colorschemes were trialled. After all of this interior change, another exterior change came when the car was renumbered to “6” on the 26th of October 1970. This would prove to be short-lived, and on the 21st of July 1972, the car was renumbered to “5” and re-assigned to a Mr. Hall. It was “O.C. 5” that the car began its relationship with TVRM. At this time TVRM was a short “back-and-forth” operation running from East Chattanooga to Milepost 1 and to the west side of Tunnel Boulevard, where there was no longer any tunnel for the railway to traverse, only a gapping chasm. A major milestone was completed in 1977, when TVRM built a bridge across the road, and Southern Railway donated the remaining right-of-way to the east. Southern Railway sent Office Car 5 to this ceremony, alonside the Open Observation Car LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, 4501, and other TVRM equipment.

A few years later, color television came to the car, in 1980 with a Sony set being installed. Two years later the car became property of the Norfolk Southern Railway Corporation, and was eventually renumbered “8” and then named “TENNESSEE”. Two decades later the car was retired and sold into private ownership for PV usage, but amid mounting costs, the owner instead sold the outside swing hanger trucks from beneath the car for use beneath the Pullman, later Wabash, parlor car CITY OF PERU. Now without trucks, the car simply sat near St. Louis, until TVRM donors acquired the car for the museum in 2020. The car naturally had to come by crane and semi, since it had no trucks, and was lowered onto a pair of Dafasco trucks in January of 2020. Upon arrival at the museum, this would begin a 5 year restoration back to Southern Railway appearance as Office Car 21. Ultimately a set of GSC outside swing hanger trucks were obtained from a former New York Central office car, which according to some were the final set produced.

The Restoration of Office Car Number 21

With limited shop space, office car 8 found itself in, then out of, then back into the shops multiple times, before emerging as Southern Railway Office Car 21 once again in December of 2023. Further electrical and plumbing work was required, as was interior restoration, before the car was ready to enter service. Ultimately this work would be completed in the first half of 2025, and Southern Railway No. 21 made its first trip on TVRM’s Dinner Train in August of 2025, depicting the minimalist “corporate” office car of the 1950s-1980s, in contrast to the museum’s other office car, B&O 98, which even in its “restrained” 1950s condition is still filled with Pullman’s Edwardian Opulence of the 1910s-20s.

The museum looks forward to having O.C. 21 host museum patrons and visitors on its various excursions, providing the chance to relax in the spacious restored interior (complete with original furniture, wall clocks, fixtures, and even original 1950s Ajax window blinds) or on the classic rear platform whilst the heavyweight car (the heaviest at TVRM) “carries the markers”.