jphjaxfla said
I remember divided coaches on the L&N and other railroads back in th 1950s. One end of the coach was for white passengers and the other end for African American passengers. There was a door in the center of the car dividing those sections. When segregation was finally abolished, the doors were removed, but you could still see where the parititions were in the center of the coach. Some of those L&N coaches were purchased by Amtrak and ran through the late 70s and you could still see the reminants of the partition.
Having worked for Amtrak in 1972 I know that these L & N cars were run on Amtrak and these cars were not "seperate but equal" the front section had plush seat and carpeting also with men's and women's lounges while the reat section which was still behind the dividers but without the door had tile and much thinner seats that didnot recline as far as the more plush seats. The section had two small restrooms ie Amflt I size. They were mainly used on 50.51.58,59, and the Floridian.
I was alive and well during the " bad old days" of segregation. My observations were not quite as much about inferior equipment ( I walked through every car of every train I rode as a child) but about separate lines at the ticket counter. I seem to recall that African Americans had separate waiting rooms and furthermore a separate place to stand to get the attention of the ticket agent. That scared me--no telling how many may have missed their train while the ticket agents pandered to the Whites.
As to the L&N coaches in question (the ones later sold to Amtrak), note that I was alive and well when they were built and saw them many times in my hometown in actual service. FIrst time I boarded one I was disappointed at how spartan its appointments were, (at each end) no carpet,no drapes, very plain. Streamlined, lightweight but very plain. There was never a door between the sections , but always an eched glass partition. No appreciable difference in each section.
I am looking at page 199 of "The Passenger Car Library' Vol. 6 Southeastern Railroads, W. David Randall. Shown is actually a KCS car but no builders photos of L&N available but claimed to be identical, the same lot number 4403.
There were 13 60-seat cars in this order, 11 of them being sold to Amtrak. As built, there were two small restrooms at each end of the car, I personally remember being upset about that as well. See, I was used to the large lounge-- like restrooms such as the earlier (1946) L&N streamlined coaches had. The old restrooms had a waiting room annex which could be used for visiting and smoking, with the toilets being annexed off from that lounge room. One big men's room at one end of the car, one big ladies room at the other end, each about the size of a bedroom.
These cars were ordered 8/54, delivered in 9/55. They just got in on the cusp of segregation becoming illegal.
The irony in a post about segregation is,it is possible these specific 13 cars (even with their glass partition) were never used in a segregated way at all, thus the lack of need for that partition after all. It could, then, in later years, be justified as a decoration to block the"tunnel effect" of a long row of coach seats. That has happened before.
I have no explanation for the memories of others about this. But here is a thought---could it be that Amtrak itself rebuilt the coaches into, maybe, something like what we would today call business class for part of the car?Maybe charged a little more? I don't know but that seems plausable.