ATLANTA – The Crescent in its modern-day incarnation is rooted deep in southern history.
The Crescent traces its heritage back to the 1890s. The Washington & Southwestern Vestibule Limited launched in 1891, running from New York to New Orleans. According to American Heritage Dictionary, a vestibule is “an enclosed area at the end of a passenger car on a railroad train.” That was considered a luxury for passengers to be able to walk between cars all the while protected from the elements.
A 1950 edition of Ties magazine stated: “In an important sense, the new Crescent came to us from the manufacturers still incomplete. The assembly line did not end in the plant, but here in the station, yards and ticket offices and on the tracks of the Southern. As delivered, the cars were complete and elaborate pieces of machinery, but were not the Crescent. It takes railroaders to bring a string of cars to life as a “name” train; railroaders talking to their friends and neighbors; at ticket counters; along a thousand miles of track; at throttles and switches and telegraph keys; at dining car tables; on station platforms; in carpeted Pullman aisles-all intent on making a trip on the Crescent the passengers’ smoothest, safest, friendliest ride.”
