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In 1944, Wabash Railroad ordered a 7 car trainset from ACF to make a round trip daily from St. Louis to Kansas City. The set, delivered in '47 as the "City of Kansas City," consisted of a 73' 10" Baggage, a Baggage/30' Mail (same length as the Baggage), two 56 Seat Coaches with 8 seat smoking rooms, a 60 seat Coach/Coffee shop with a semi-circular bar in the center of the car seating 10, a Diner/Lounge with 40 dining and 16 lounge seats, and a Drawing Room/Parlor Observation with 24 parlor chairs and observation seating for 18 (two tables of 4 and 10 in the obs area). The cars were constructed with anodized aluminum fluting, which was only done by ACF, and to our knowledge, only on this trainset and some cars for the L&N. These kits contain as close a replica of this unique fluting as we could do. As of 11/2006, the Parlor Observation is sitting in Collierville, TN, just east of Memphis, at a refurbished Southern Railway passenger station and is the process of being transformed, with several other cars, into a restaurant.
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