The author - Burt C. Blanton - stands on the open platform of the Clinchfield Railroad's Office Car No. 100, which is located on a siding adjacent to the passenger depot at Erwin, Tennessee. The time is noon, Sunday, June 10, 1979. This was a modern car with a complement of conventional equipment. The exterior was painted dark green. The cars letterboard bore the name "Clinchfield" plus the number 100 positioned on either side, centered below the windows, all in gold leaf. There was a gold stripe near the car's base, running along each side and across the rear-end platform. Office Car No. 100 was formerly an Atlantic Coast Lines dining car bearing the name "Orlando" and the car was rebuilt in the Clinchfield's Erwin Shops.

A survivor of the "Glory Days of Steam" - the author: Burt C. Blanton - momentarily delays departure of the Clinchfield Railroad's special excursion train wich is standing at the Marion, North Carolina Depot; scheduled to leave at 9:00 am on Sunday morning, June 10, 1979. The train is headed by the Clinchfield's passenger locomotives, No. 200, type FP-7A, and No. 800, type F-7A. The consist was eight cars. The train's route was in a northerly direction from Marion to Erwin, Tennessee - a rail distance of 82.3 miles. The Clinchfield Railroad is a typical mountain line (standard gauge) - 275 miles in length - completed on February 9, 1915, at an average cost of $201,000 per mile. It's rails traverse a portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the railroad crosses the Eastern Transcontinental Divide in the Blue Ridge Tunnel which has a length of 1,865 feet. There are 55 tunnels on the route, ranging from 154 to 7,865 feet. This excellent short line railroad extends from the southern terminus, Spartanburg, South Carolina, via Marion, North Carolina to Erwin, Tennessee; and thence to the northern terminus at Elkhorn City, Kentucky.