Excursion Coach

The New Braunfels is one of six cars ordered in late 1954 in Pullman Lot 6965 to Plan 7647 for the famous streamlined Texas Special, “Glamour Train of the Southwest.” It was one of the first all-stainless steel cars built by Pullman-Standard, which had been unable to build all-stainless steel cars until the mid-1950s when certain patents held by rival Budd Co. expired. One car in the series was built for the Frisco.  The other five, including the New Braunfels, were delivered in July 1955 to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT or Katy), operating between St. Louis and San Antonio.

After cessation of the Katy’s passenger service in the 1960s, the New Braunfels found a home on the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) as that line’s No. 530, and after NP was merged with other lines to form Burlington Northern (BN), the car became BN property.  AMTRAK acquired the car from BN in 1971 and numbered it 6452.  In the early 1980s, the New Braunfels was leased to Metro North Commuter Railroad, seeing service on various commuter lines out of New York City.  In July 1985, AMTRAK offered the New Braunfels for sale at auction, and it was purchased by the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society for use by the Texas Railroading Heritage Museum. The New Braunfels made its way to the ASTA yard in 2016 and is currently being leased by the National Railway Historical Society.

All of our cars are now climate controlled!

Looking for wheelchair accessible seats? Check out the Buckeye Trail and Eagle Cliff cars. The New Braunfels is not accessible by wheelchair.

 

We are also thrilled to share some historical photos from the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society!