WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society has embarked on the restoration of "Chessie 29," a railcar that served as the mobile office for the president of the C&O Railway and played a hidden role in the Cold War.
The nonprofit organization has begun fundraising to restore the iconic mid-century car and reintroduce it to the American rail network as a rolling museum and teaching tool.
C&O tradition and mid-century luxury
Regarded as the most famous surviving passenger car from the C&O, Chessie 29 was constructed in 1950 and originally entered service as the "New River Club," a luxury passenger car built by Pullman.
In 1951, it was taken to the railway’s Huntington locomotive shop for an extensive rebuild and conversion into a high-end business car, emerging with a new purpose and a new name inspired by the railroad’s beloved mascot, "Chessie" the Railroad Kitten.
From 1948 to 1966, the 83-foot car was permanently assigned to C&O President Walter J. Tuohy, who used it as his mobile office while traveling the length of the railroad, which stretched from the Virginia tidewater through the Ohio Valley and into Michigan and Ontario.
According to C&O accounts, the car was decorated by the celebrated design firm Dorothy Draper & Company of New York, known for its iconic work at The Greenbrier.
Donated to the C&O Historical Society
In 2019, Chessie 29 was donated to the C&O Historical Society by Al Barbour of Pennsylvania, who also funded its relocation to the nonprofit’s C&O Railway Heritage Center museum in Clifton Forge, Virginia.
The organization now seeks to restore the car to full operational condition, preserving an irreplaceable artifact of American railroad history and mid-20th-century design.
“This is more than a passenger car,” said Mark Totten, vice chairman of the society. “Chessie 29 carries an extraordinary and little-known story that connects the C&O Railway to the Cold War, the U.S. Congress, and one of the nation's most famous resorts.”
Secret meeting shaped Cold War planning
The railcar’s most significant distinction comes from a virtually unknown 1956 meeting aboard the car that involved Tuohy and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to archival research by the society, Tuohy and Eisenhower traveled from Washington, D.C., to White Sulphur Springs aboard Chessie 29 under the public pretense of attending a “Summit of the Americas” at The Greenbrier.
Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and Mexican President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines were in attendance at the summit, offering diplomatic cover for the real purpose of Eisenhower’s trip.
While aboard, Tuohy and Eisenhower finalized an agreement to construct a top-secret congressional relocation bunker beneath The Greenbrier. Built using cut-and-cover concealment beneath a new hotel wing, the bunker was designed to house the entire U.S. Congress in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington, D.C.
The C&O Railway, which owned The Greenbrier at the time, played a key role in the arrangement, providing logistical support, cover, and, later, a steady workforce to help the federal government maintain the site.
The existence of the bunker remained classified until 1992, when journalist Ted Gup revealed it in The Washington Post.
“Chessie 29 was literally ‘the room where it happened’ for West Virginia’s once-secret congressional bunker,” Totten said. “It’s a reminder of how the Cold War quietly touched everyday American infrastructure, from railroads to resorts.”
Monaco’s prince and princess visit West Virginia
Adding to its mystique, Chessie 29 hosted international royalty during a little-known 1963 visit by the royal family of Monaco.
Prince Rainier III, Princess Grace (the former actress Grace Kelly), and their children traveled by rail aboard the railcar to The Greenbrier for a private, unannounced vacation.
In the society archives, photographs from the visit show Prince Rainier III and young Princess Caroline disembarking at the Greenbrier station, Princess Grace enjoying a quiet moment on the resort’s tennis courts, and a young Albert II, now Monaco’s reigning prince, wearing a C&O engineer’s outfit gifted to him on the train by Tuohy.
The royal family later sent an autographed portrait to Tuohy bearing the handwritten message: “To Mr. Tuohy with all our most sincere good wishes and gratitude.”
The photograph, signed by both Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace, remains one of the historical society’s most prized artifacts.
Hosting queens, diplomats, and dignitaries
Chessie 29 also played a role in other moments of mid-century diplomacy. In 1952, the car was used to host Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands during their tour of the U.S. following a visit to Holland, Michigan.
Tuohy hosted the royal couple for dinner aboard the car, further cementing Chessie 29’s reputation as one of the most distinguished business cars in the nation’s postwar rail fleet.
Throughout the 20th century, thousands of passenger cars traversed America’s rails. Yet, Totten notes, few can match the breadth of historical connection contained within the walls of Chessie 29.
“It’s the C&O Railway’s most legendary surviving passenger car,” he said. “Its story reaches from the mountains of West Virginia to the geopolitics of the Cold War.”
Restoring a rolling icon of American railroading
The C&O Historical Society now seeks to raise funds to restore the car to operating condition, a process that will require significant mechanical, cosmetic, and systems work.
The goal is to return Chessie 29 to active rail service as a mobile museum, allowing the public to experience the same railcar that once carried presidents, royalty, and the architects of Cold War contingency plans.
“Because this car is irreplaceable, our mission is not just to preserve it, but to share it,” Totten said. “It will serve future generations as a living classroom that connects American railroading to world history.”
The organization envisions the restored railcar making appearances across the country at heritage railroads, special events, educational programs, and historical commemorations.
A symbol of the C&O’s legacy and West Virginia’s role in history
Ultimately, Totten believes Chessie 29 represents a rare intersection of transportation history, political history, and the quiet anxieties of the nuclear age.
“In the context of the Cold War’s fears—and Eisenhower’s necessary but unpublicized preparations—Chessie 29 stands as a witness to a moment that is now nearly unthinkable,” he said. “This single passenger car helps tell the story of how the United States ensured the continuity of government at a time of unprecedented global tension.”
As the C&O Historical Society moves forward with its restoration campaign, the group hopes the public will recognize the passenger car not just as a luxury artifact of the mid-century railway era, but as a national historical asset with ties stretching from the White House to West Virginia’s most famous resort and all the way to the royal courts of Europe.
For information on contributing to the society and the restoration effort, contact the C&O Historical Society.
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