Seats: 48 total
Tables:
12 tables in the car
Handicap Accessible: Yes
Bathroom: Yes
Pricing: $38.00-$70.00 per seat varying per event.
Train Rides: Tasting Trains, Royalty Express, Scenic Train, and The Polar Express™ Train Ride
Facts:
-This car contains a kitchen.
-The car was fully renovated by Crossroads Railcar Services in 2018.
French Lick Scenic Railway Coach 1710
Budd Company Built 1950
This coach was originally built by the Budd Company as a 10-6 sleeper car for the Norfolk and Western Railway, it carried the name Pulaski County. While with Norfolk and Western it was used on the Pocahontas overnight train between Norfolk, VA and Cincinnati, OH. Sometime in the 1950s the car was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad who converted the car into a 72 seat coach for it to carry a higher capacity for the 1964 World’s Fair. Following the merger of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads forming Penn Central, the car would be used in passenger service until it was sold to the New Jersey Transit for commuter train service. In 1989 the car was retired and then sold, this time to the United Railroad Historical Society. The car would again change ownership, now being used by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The car was sold to the Indiana Railway Museum in 2019 and was rebuilt and refitted by the Crossroads Railcar Services.
French Lick & West Baden was once known as the home to “America’s Laxative”. The Pluto Water slogan was “When nature wont, Pluto will.” At one point in time, 40-50 train cars were used to ship Pluto Water across the country. This “healing” water naturally contained sodium, magnesium sulfate, and lithium which produced a foul odor. This odor prompted people to say that the underworld couldn’t be far away.
Pluto, the Roman God of the Underworld became a staple symbol in our area. Ultimately, Pluto Water sales were stopped in 1971 when lithium became a controlled substance and was no longer allowed to be sold publicly. However, the Pluto symbol remains and can still be found in many areas locally.
