Old 78 Ain’t What She Used To Be
However, despite tlie fiiel that patronage
lias fallen off to some ext«*nt. it's still an in¬
teresting' and enjoyable* experience to ride
her to and from the* mountains.
OLD Car 78 still leaves Raleigh
every night at 11:05, and
departs from Asheville at
3:45 p.m., but she ain’t what she
used to be. On a recent run, she
had only four occupants, and the
porter told me she had hauled
even fewer. Of course, during the
war, it was a busy little car. It
is a rare occasion now when the
sleeper’s 10 sections are sold out,
but there was a time when extra
cars had to be added to take care
of flatlanders going to and from
the mountains.
One of the things I’m going to
get around to some day is to take
my 13-year-old up on 78. She’s
been on a train only once in her
life, and the business of sleeping
and eating while you’re riding the
rails has just as much fascination
for children now as ever it had.
Not only that, but there are few
travel experiences in this
state as pleasant as waking
up at about Marion, and
having breakfast while the
train climbs slowly toward
Swannanoa Gap— particu¬
larly during the spring and
fall color seasons. Coming
home in the afternoon, with
supper in the foothills, it’s
a different trip, because of
the reversed position of the
train.
Since 1880
I first rode Southern’s
Old 78 twenty-six years
ago, but the sleeper had
been in service long before
that. As long, said one re¬
tired railway man. as the
line had been built: that
would make it about 1880.
In those years, the car has
carried many a Western
Carolinian to the state
THE STATE, JULY IS, 1950
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siiAitHi:
capital, and many on eastern polit¬
ical candidate planning an assault
on the hills. Some call it the
"politics car,” but the automobile
and good roads have dimmed its
fame and put it on the rocks. Few
of this generation have ever rid¬
den the car, or even know about
it.
Yet, it is still a great timesaver
for a quick trip to the mountains,
and is about the only way an
•easterner can go to and from Ashe¬
ville one day, unless you drive at
night or Ily. You arrive in time
to get in a morning’s work, have
a business luncheon, with ample
time to catch the return car, which
arrives back in Raleigh at 4:20
a.m. This ungodly arrival hour is
tempered by the fact that the Pull¬
man car sits in the local station
until 7:30 and may be occupied
until that time.
Only One of its Kind
Old 78 is the only overnight rail¬
way sleeping service which both
originates and terminates in North
Carolina. It is not however, a train
— just a car, which wanders willy-
nilly over the face of North Caro¬
lina, hitch-hiking its way from
point to point until it reaches its
destination. Formerly it went to
Greensboro, was picked up there
and deposited at Salisbury, then
picked up by another train and
pulled over the mountains. Since
about eight months ago, it goes by
way of Winston-Salem and Barber’s
Junction and in its travels at one
time or another is attached
to trains 111, 15, 16, and
112.
The cars (there are two
78’s — one coming, one go¬
ing) now in use are ten-
section sleepers combined
with observation lounges.
These lounges have been
the scenes of many a heated
political argument, a busi¬
ness deal, a bull session,
and even a crop game of
conventioneers ret u rn i ng
from Asheville. The lounge
obviously is more useful
for social purposes coming
down the hills than in go¬
ing up.
On sonic parts of the trip it was necessary to
engage the services of a pusher engine, as well as
the customary one in front. Now, however, diesels
have taken over.
No Pushers
Improvements have
robbed 78 of one of its
greatest fascinations. Until
recent years, its train
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