In the heyday of Southern Railway's famous steam excursion program, open-air observation car "Lookout Mountain" once served with the likes of SOU 2-8-2 #4501 and N&W Class J 4-8-4 #611.

When Southern retired its older excursion rolling stock after a derailment on the old N&W main near Suffolk, Va. in the mid-1980s, the car made its way to Oregon along with two ex-SOU coaches.

They became an integral part of the Mount Hood Railroad's seasonal excursion train, which operates regularly up the Hood River valley within sight of the railroad's namesake mountain. It is shown here waiting at Parkdale for the return trip to Hood River.

The new owners of the MHRR, Iowa Pacific Holdings, subsequently moved the "Lookout Mountain" to the Rio Grande Scenic RR in central Colorado. The new feature car on the MHRR excursion train is a former ATSF full-length dome lounge that was part of the Holland-America Westours "McKinley Explorer" operation in Alaska.

Photographed by Thomas McCann, October 18, 2003.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, December 2, 2006.
Railroad: Southern.

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