...and a long way from the "Great Steel Fleet" is this former Kansas City Southern diner-lounge-observation, now on display in Jackson, La. The 1948-vintage Budd was built as a tavern-lounge-obs for New York Central and purchased by KCS in 1959.

KCS modified it into a lunch counter-lounge-observation and operated it on the "Southern Belle" and other KCS trains in the waning days of the road's passenger service.

After KCS exited passenger train operations in November 1969, the car was sold to a private owner who had it trucked to a hunting camp near Jackson, north of Baton Rouge. The car was eventually brought into town, were it serves as both a display and as a rental venue for dinners and parties.

Jackson, founded in 1815 and named for famous General and later U.S. President Andrew Jackson, has another railroad-related activity, the three-foot gauge Old Hickory Railroad, which operates seasonal excursion trains on a stretch of right-of-way from the old Clinton & Port Hudson RR.

Photographed by Thomas McCann, October 11, 2005.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, November 15, 2006.
Railroad: Kansas City Southern.

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