A piece of railroad history and a new dream for downtown
Peavy has plans to turn car into diner
On a Friday afternoon when it feels like summer is close at hand, the silvery gray of a railroad car is warmed by the bright sun and dappled by shadows from nearby trees that mark the edge of an industrial site.
It’s where two men, John Singleton and David Peavy, talk at length about what to them is a marvel. It’s a 1378 Concho, one of the streamlined cars built by Pullman-Standard around 1940. A lounge car where you could feel luxurious back decades ago, it still has the power to conjure dreams.
A vintage advertisement extols the beauty of this sort of rail car thus: “Constructed in PullmanStandard’s shops for the alert Santa Fe Railroad, this new fleet of lightweight cars is more than a glittering example of the progress railroads are making … it is also evidence of the influence that you, and travelers like you, have over transportation.”
Decades after its glory days, one local man acquired it, part of his obsession with trains. Now he’s passing it on to another man who sees in it a dream ride to the future.
“I bought it sight unseen from Amtrak in 1981,” Singleton recalled. “I’d been bidding on these surplus cars: send my bid in, get a letter back, open the end of it, shake it out … ” Invariably, his deposit check would be in there.
Except this time, no such funds returned. “There was no check, but there was a letter in there and it says, congratulations, you have bought the following piece of Amtrak equipment,” Singleton said. His bid price of $3,381.10 simply mimicked the Amtrak car number. It was enough, and he took a bus to New Orleans after his nightly Post Office work to go get it.
“I’ve got trains in my blood,” Singleton says. “I’ve had trains in my blood since day one.” His dad would take him down to the train station as a child. That was his entertainment.
This Concho was Singleton’s third rail car, and now it’s Peavy who owns it and has this love for trains working through his system.
Peavy has a dream, too, to convert the rail car into a restaurant, a Front Street hot spot situated just outside his 1894 City Market, a place where people can dine on good casual food and savor the taste of nostalgia, the kind of place that attracts tourists.
He’ll still call it the Concho, although the restaurant side he aims to call the Flying Crow, named for a Kansas City Southern passenger train that used to go through Texarkana. As the licensee, he’ll pay $100 for that right to the name.
Another train car Singleton owned had a dome on it. A glass top meant you could look out at the sky and heavens. “The Pleasure Dome is what they called it,” he said. He and a partner worked on it for a year, then they gave it up. “It was beginning like any car to become the silver sinkhole … you just sink all your money into it.”
Singleton has traveled in the Concho, all the way to Chihuahua, Mexico. He’d pay the railroad a certain amount of money and then hitch a ride. He and friends would plan trips for a couple weeks. “Just ride your train car around the country,” Peavy said.
Back then, for a few hundred dollars, you could travel to California and back, Singleton said.
“I was told that back in the old days, this was the Super Chief. This was a first class lounge car for your Pullman passengers, and all your Hollywood movie stars traveled on that train,” Singleton said, naming luminaries like Elizabeth Taylor and Greer Garson. That was back in the ’ 40s and ’50s.
It operated as a bar lounge dormitory car, Singleton explained. It even had a barbershop at one end.
“Well, I’ve jumped and I’m all in. Everything has been received so well. It is unbelievable.”
—David Peavy
A dorm area supplied a dozen bunks where the Super Chief dining car crew slept. “Every inch was utilized,” he said. It’s about 80 feet long, 13 feet tall.
When Singleton and Peavy step up and inside, the sense of wonder and appreciation blooms in their voices, particularly when they walk into the lounge car. “This is the wow right here. This where you say, this is kind of cool,” Peavy says, noting the art deco style.
Peavy aims to leave as much fabric of the lounge seating as he can and may dye some of it. Burgundy dominates the interior color. A book about Pullman railroad cars shows all of them the company built. In it is this Concho with “J. Singleton” noted as the current owner.
“This is the builder’s photo the day it came out of the Pullman shops in Chicago,” Singleton said. That was seven years to the day before he was born. Photos of the lounge show the half-moon couches. A library area included a reading desk.
“It had 32 volts DC electricity,” Singleton said. “It has steam heat, steam air. It had no refrigeration, but it had almost a walk-in ice box that you filled from the roof with ice.”
Like it is with an airplane, staff would bring everything on prepared, Peavy said. It was equipped with an on-board radio system, programmed to play stations along the route, Singleton added. It was all part of the luxury experience. The next car up was the diner. Where did the Concho travel?
“Chicago to L.A.,” Singleton said, “on the Super Chief.”
Peavy will build what amounts
to a raised flower bed with tracks on it for the train’s downtown location. It will have gravel under it, crossties put down, and constructed in such a way that it doesn’t impact the road, he said. He hopes to place the train car restaurant right along Front Street.
A replica train station for outside dining and an observation deck that allows people to see over the top of the train into the train yard are also part of his plan.
“It needs to be spit-shined,” Peavy says about the renovation to his former Santa Fe rail car. He’s researched the history of the Flying Crow, which ran from Kansas City to Port Arthur, Texas.
“Straight as the crow flies,” Peavy said while holding an old Flying Crow schedule, noting for much of the way it followed what’s now U.S. Highway 71 South.
“The coolest thing is they were competing with automobiles at this point. This is from 1937, and you could ship your car on your trip. They were killing the competition of a car driving down there, so you could ship your car for $54,” Peavy said. That was a lot of money, but consider the wear and tear on a vehicle.
The Flying Crow line came through Texarkana for about 40 years, until 1968. “I applied and got permission to use their name and their logo,” Peavy said.
So, with his rail car restaurant project, that slice of Texarkana KCS history will be paired with what was a luxurious, Pullman-built Santa Fe Railway Super Chief lounge car that transported the stars across the country. Peavy aims to give it a 1942 feel, and the food will be casual dining.
“We might try to see what was served on that train at that time and try to stay with traditional stuff,” Peavy said. He anticipates selling souvenir cups and other items with the Texarkana name on it. With the style and the history behind it, he wants to pull in tourists and make this a city attraction.
He wants people driving through town to stop, come downtown and check it all out. “We want to create new business in downtown, so that’s what we’re going to try to do,” he said.
Peavy was awarded $20,000 for the project via a vote by the Texarkana, Ark., Advertising and Promotion Commission, and they will consider more later, according to a Feb. 2 Gazette article. Peavy said these funds are being held up, however, and he’s trying to get this straightened out.
Main Street loan funds will help get the rail car downtown. And about using city funds, Peavy said the project both enhances the Front Street Festival Plaza and, with an observation deck, will be open for recreational public use. This is part of the concern from the city’s A&P Commission, he said, cautioning that he understands concerns about giving to a private entity for private gain.
“What I want them to do is help me create a replica train station, so that it can become this tourist attraction. And if I’m not there someday, that train station could still be there and still be a cool place, enhancing the Festival Plaza,” Peavy said.
He aims for his Concho and the Flying Crow to be a place connected to Texarkana’s past, all the way back to its origins. He anticipates getting started soon, including positioning the rail car downtown.
And count Peavy as among those hopeful and enthusiastic that downtown Texarkana will see further success. He suspects Texarkana’s downtown will look totally different in three years.
“Enjoy the history, enjoy looking at where Texarkana was founded feet away from there, where that railroad track came through,” Peavy said of the restaurant project.
It’s a big dream, he admits. There’s a long way to go, but he’s happy with where he’s at now. It’s like diving off a cliff in Acapulco, he says.
“Well, I’ve jumped and I’m all in. Everything has been received so well. It is unbelievable. I think downtown has been waiting for quality, Verona’s quality, Zapata’s quality—quality places downtown are doing well,” Peavy said.