The wry observation of society grande dame Mrs. August Belmont - "A private car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately" - was certainly evident on a recent evening when invited guests and friends were able to tour vintage rail cars at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum.
About 30 of the classic private cars, once the preferred conveyance of U.S. presidents, industrial moguls and the stylish, were parked on the museum's tracks for the annual three-day convention of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners Inc.
The late author and historian Lucius M. Beebe once observed that when a private car rolled into town, it gave its occupants two things: "Instant social status and instant credit."
His car, the Virginia City, which he owned with Charles M. Clegg, is a stunning example of a classic 1928 Pullman-Standard open-platform heavyweight business car. When Beebe and Clegg bought the car in 1954, they had its interior redesigned in a flamboyant Venetian Renaissance style, complete with a working fireplace that was fed by gas. It has since been returned to its pre-1954 appearance.
"As defined by the Association of American Railroads, a private car was for private use, usually containing eating and sleeping and frequently business facilities," wrote Gordon Crosthwait, historian and a founding member of the car owners association.
Given the designation "PV" or "private varnish," the term has broadened beyond the traditional open-platform car, and today includes a variety of styles such as sleeper-lounges, dome cars, dining cars or coaches that are privately owned and operated.
"The term 'Private Varnish,' it is said," wrote Crosthwait, "was coined in the wooden-car era prior to 1910 when varnish was applied to protect the painted wood."
While today's cars are made of steel or stainless steel, the old name remains as a designation, not only for a particular railroad car but for an entire era when opulence and one's financial success was defined by the steam yacht and the private railroad car.
The cars also became rolling stages for presidential candidates, who addressed crowds gathered by the tracks as they criss-crossed the country. Many presidents - most recently Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1969 - also rode to their final resting places aboard private cars on slow, solemn journeys, as weeping crowds lined the right-of-way bidding them farewell.
The heyday of these eloquent mansions on wheels was wiped away with the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.
They became rolling anachronisms and were only nursed back from the edge of extinction in recent years by a band of devoted rail fans with deep pockets and an affection for the old cars. Today, their numbers have grown to more than 500 car owners and associates, said John H. "Jack" Heard of Fernandina Beach, Fla., president of the car owners association.
Heard, a jolly man with a thick Southern accent and a hospitable manner, rode into Baltimore aboard the Georgia 300, a Packard blue eye-popper that was formerly the Georgia Railroad's office car. He bought the car in 1985, after it was declared surplus by the Seaboard Coast Line.
Railroad car enthusiasts "are private people doing what museums do. They are using their personal resources to preserve these cars and in doing so a piece of industrial history," said Courtney B. Wilson, executive director of the B&O; Museum. "And they have a deep and abiding love for their cars."
Purchasing a pre-restoration car, Wilson suggests, is the easy part.
What undoubtedly lies ahead for the proud new owner are myriad technical and mechanical nightmares requiring the services of highly skilled mechanics and craftsmen. Replacement parts often have to be cannibalized from other cars or custom-made.
"A car then has to be Amtrak-certified and meet all Federal Railroad Administration regulations before it turns one wheel on Class-1 mainline railroads. It is a continuing expense as regulations change and a car must remain mechanically up to speed," said Wilson.
"And then when you're out on the road, there are mileage charges, hook-up charges, terminal charges, railroad tariffs, parking fees and switching charges," he said.
Dr. John F. Marshall, a retired physician who lives in New Hampshire, has owned the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad's car No. 403, built by Pullman in 1914, since 1988.
Its interior rooms and staterooms, carefully restored to its original luster, are outfitted in dark woods. Wing chairs, a sofa and tables make the observation room a comfortable place from which to watch the world slip by while enjoying a convivial cocktail.
"This car was used by Harry Truman in 1948, and by Lyndon Johnson in their campaigns in Texas. Jimmy Carter has dined aboard the car, which has also been used by Al Gore and Bill Clinton. So, this car has had a decided Democratic influence," said Marshall, who shares the car with his wife and four Scottish terriers.
Jack Deasy, owner of the Mount Vernon, a stainless steel art deco-influenced bedroom-lounge car built in 1950 by the Budd Co. of Philadelphia for the Union Pacific Railroad, speaks highly of his car's riding qualities.
"She'll ride smoothly doing 110 on the Northeast Corridor," he said.
For Lou Seivard, 82, of Parkville, the visit evoked memories of journeys during the 1930s aboard office cars of the Pennsylvania Railroad with his father, who was the railroad company's superintendent of passenger transportation in New York.
"When you have railroading in your blood, it certainly brings back lots of memories," said Seivard, a retired chemist who was wearing his father's 50-year railroad service pin.
David Graves, owner of Saintsbury, a Napa Valley vineyard, was celebrating his 50th birthday as a guest aboard the Palmetto State.
In his dimly lit stateroom, Graves was tying his necktie when some visitors poked their heads in for a quick look.
After proclaiming the joys of the sybaritic lifestyle found aboard a private car, he was asked if he was thinking of buying one.
His answer was quick and direct. "My wife said, 'Don't get any ideas. Before you get a private car, I get an art studio.' "