Silver Meteor, ca. 1939/1940, Sleeping Cars

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I am in the process of writing a story that involves characters going from NYC to Charleston, SC. I'd like to put them on the Silver Meteor. Queries:

(1) How would they get from NYC to Charleston, in terms of the exact train name/times? (2) Assuming these characters were well off (though not well off enough to have private varnish), what kind of accomodations would first class sleeping car passengers have? More importantly, are there photos of these accomodations?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Eric O. Costello (EOCostello@ao

-- Eric O. Costello (EOCostello@aol.com), December 02, 2000

Answers

Just reset your story to after July, 1967 and then you can have your characters travel the newly formed Seaboard Coast Line to Charleston! Just a thought.

John

-- John V. Pasquariello (GRIZZLETOAD@AOL.COM), December 09, 2000.


Sir, I read your post about your work and what you're looking for. I've posted many old railroad timetables on my PhotoPoint web site (you can get to the site below...see the highlighted text). Your characters would most likely take the Atlantic Coast Line RR since that railroad ran streamlined trains through Charleston. See the PhotoPoint file called "ACL PTT's" (Atlantic Coast Line Public Time Tables) for information. ACL ran trains called the Palmetto, the Champion, and many others. Most people in the railroad business--as well as most passengers--referred to the ACL as the "Coast Line". The timetables on my site include times, dates, and in some cases the type of equipment used. E-mail me if you have any further questions. The Silver Meteor was operated by the Seaboard Railroad, but the Seaboard line through Charleston was generally a freight-only route. Seaboard's streamlined passenger trains ran on a differnt route through Columbia, SC. You can look at Seaboard Public Time Tables on my site as well by clicking on the file marked SAL PTTs. I built this site for people to do research...I hope you can use the things I've posted. Again, if you have any questions or can't figure out the timetables, give me a holler with your questions and we'll go from there. If you can't get to the site, search for www.Photopoint.com, and once you get to the site type in Golden1014@yahoo.com when it asks you "which album to look for". Questions? Just e-mail me back and I'll talk you through it. Good luck! Yours, John Golden

-- John Golden (Golden1014@yahoo.com), December 02, 2000.

If you are striving to be accurate you can't use the SILVER METEOR. It never went to Charleston,SC since it is on SAL's low grade freight only "East Carolina" line. ACL may have had a streamliner through Charleston. I'll have to let the "purple powered" ACL fans answer that.

-- Richard Stallworth (ThisIsR@aol.com), December 02, 2000.

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