Southern Railway Dining Car 3164 - Accident

On November 11, 1958, the 83-ton car was knocked into the Southern station in downtown Knoxville where it wound up inside the building. This photograph shows the car after the collision.

Note the three windows immediately above the 3164, and the crack in the brick on the side wall.

Originals of this photograph, and the following three showing the same incident are available on the dining car itself.

The Southern Railway Superintendent of Terminal Operations for Knoxville had his office on the other side of the wall. Dining car 3164 had come a callin'.

The dining car window that is just visible on the right side of the photograph is in the passageway that leads along the kitchen end of the car.

This photograph as taken just as the dining car was being removed from the station. In spite of the evident attempts to shore up - or brace - the station wall, the damage was too severe, and the photographer captured the event as the wall and the three windows tumbled down.

This shows the kitchen end of the dining car, after the car was removed from the station and the dust had settled.

Notice that the diaphram-buffer plate (the upside down "U"-shaped piece of 3/4" thick steel over the doorway) was bent. The end walls of the car have been shoved in about 8 inches. It appears that even the car end-beam (the horizontal steel beam across the end of car at the bottom) has been buckled up by the force of the collision.

During restoration done by volunteer members of the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum in the spring of 1999 considerable welding was done to repair this damage.
Both the station and the car still show damage and repairs due to the meeting.