featured on Empire State Express & "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"

 Travel in Grand Style.....

The "3" features an spacious observation lounge, formal dining room,

several ornate staterooms and an outdoor observation platform.

The New York Central #3, was built for Harold Sterling Vanderbilt, who worked as a director of the railroad founded by his family three generations previously. The car, built in 1928, was a typical Pullman executive car of this grand era. Such cars were called "private varnish" because of their varnished woodwork and exclusive uses; they served as traveling offices and hotels, and were used for railroad inspections as well as for personal travel and for business entertainment.

  click on photo to enlarge 

NYC-3 frequently played host to film celebrities, wealthy tycoons, and even presidential campaigners in what politicians of the day called "whistle-stop" tours: Trains would stop in small towns and politicians would give speeches from the back platform before waving goodbye as the train departed. Adlai Stevenson campaigned on NYC-3 in this manner in his 1956 campaign against President Eisenhower and, far more recently, opera singer Cecilia Bartoli enjoyed its first-class comforts between New York and her West Coast debut in Los Angeles.