Pullman train car arrives in Corbin

  Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Kriebel was detoured on her way to work Friday when she received the call she had been waiting on for months – the French Broad River Pullman train car has arrived in Corbin.

“Its really here,” Kriebel shouted as she looked at the former Southern Railroad car sat on a flatcar on the siding near Depot Street.

Kriebel said the car arrived overnight Friday, following its trip south from the Greater Cincinnati Railway Museum in northern Kentucky, courtesy of CSX.

With the car now in Corbin, Kriebel said the next step is to get if unloaded from the flatcar on which it was transported and craned onto the 100-foot piece of track panel that has been laid out just south of the former Corbin depot.

Kriebel said she will be finalizing the details of that move today.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Corbin Tourism Commission, Kriebel told the commissioners that she was in talks with the new manager of the CSX Corbin terminal about moving the flat car out onto the main line where the Pullman can be craned off of the car and onto the track panel in one motion.

“He said, “When it gets here, lets talk,” Kriebel said of the terminal manager, noting it would require CSX holding train traffic for 20 to 30 minutes.

“I have seen trains stopped on the main line for hours at a time,” Commision Chair Alan Onkst said previously.

Kriebel said the Pullman needs some minor work, including a new coat of paint on the roof and cleaning inside.

However, given that the car has been in storage on a siding in Latonia since it last ran as part of Amtrak in the mid 1980’s, it is in relatively good condition.

Kriebel said plans are ongoing to open the interior of the car to visitors. The tourism commission will be finalizing those details as progress is made on the railroad museum.