Happen to catch BResting PlaceB, a Hallmark made for TV movie (1986) staring Morgan Freeman and John Lithgow. The opening scene features a Southern E-8, I presume, traveling over what I assume was the Asheville, NC branch with a corrugated passenger car consist in tow. John Lithgow plays an Army Causality Assistance Officer during the Vietnam War and is escorting a body home for burial. The train pulls into a station where the father of the deceased serviceman, played by Morgan Freeman, and mother of the deceased are awaiting the arrival of their dead son. Strangely, the combine is tacked on the rear, of all things, of the train. The door slams open revealing the flag draped casket and you can guess the rest. Was the combine in question CGBs Fort Mitchell from the Man-O-War consists? Thanks!

-- John Ross Walker, US Navy Retired (jrosswalker@yahoo.com), October 24, 2000

Answers

Your right Larry, I remember that Southern did press some of the Man- O-War equipment into service on the Asheville line after 1971. It would only serve to reason that Southern management would be able to assemble a passenger train for Hollywood and use surplus equipment possibly stored at the Spencer shops in North Carolina. Surely the script called for some kind of a baggage car to transport the coffin but to no avail, there was none so the next best thing was done. Get Fort Mitchell to fill in. Thanks for the note.

John Walker, US Navy (Retired) Norfolk, VA

-- John Ross Walker, US Navy (Retired) (jrosswalker@yahoo.com), October 24, 2000.

The Fort Mitchell became regular equipment on the Asheville-Salisbury train in 1971, after the demise of the Man o' War, and stayed until the Asheville train itself quit in 1975. I think the combine went to the Watauga Chapter NRHS after that, so can't speak to what was going on in 1986.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), October 24, 2000.