D500, One of my current projects is to put together a semblance of the City of Memphis. I noticed that the K-Line observation car for the Golden State set has the same general shape as the City of Memphis. I am going to use a couple of the current generic Lionel lines cars to help build the consist. I ended up with an extra "Divan" observation car so its going to end up with a NC&StL blue roof. This project will probably endup looking more accurate than K-Line's rendition of the Golden State. The biggest challenge for me is going to be working in a Vandy tender. I have a MLB Berkshire that I am going to convert to a NC&St.L. as well but not for The Memphis.
The odd thing about that Golden State set is that it has a dome car and the observation is square backed. Supposedly there were no dome cares in the Golden State. The observation cars I have seen in pictures and museums have the tapered observation. That said, I am doing to run it.
I grew up on the L&N/NC&St.L. line near South Pittsburg, TN. The area has some legendary bridges and tunnels not to mention grades.
I am not sure why Lionel did the GP38 with the L&N road name but I have a couple of them. There is a new Lionchief Plus that is supposed to be out but it seems to be a ghost engine.
