The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

Started by Judge, January 05, 2019, 03:59:09 PM

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deemery

Modeling the Northeast in the 1890s - because the little voices told me to

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

BandOGuy

Working on my second million. I gave up on the first.

GPdemayo

Ya just gotta love the ingenuity of the Irish.....good one Bill.  8)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

jimmillho

Quote from: GPdemayo on December 01, 2019, 09:22:49 AM
Ya just gotta love the ingenuity of the Irish.....good one Bill.  8)

I will second that

Jim

Judge

#455
Saturday Report - December 7, 2019 (78the Anniversary of Pearl Harbour.  1550 hours, 74 degrees and sunny.  Sorry about that.

    The Board of Directors met promptly at 0830 hours.  We marveled at the new computer installed in the president's office while your reporter enjoyed a cold Coca-Cola. 
    Today was Seaboard Day and we powered up our SAL E8A units to pull a freight through the Midlands, up to Summit and back down to the Midlands with some set-outs in Tahope.
    Greg Demayo and Bob Butts arrived around 10:00 a.m. and we made a close inspection of Bob's newest construction effort.  Then we adjourned for lunch at Smokey Bones. 
    After lunch, we traveled by automobile to Lucerne Towers in Orlando to visit Jim Miller, who is recovering from open-heart surgery and in rehab there.  Jim appears to be recovering nicely and is expected to go home in about a week.  You can tell he's feeling much better than last week when we visited him because of the level of complaining.  Anyway, since Claire brought him his laptop, he is now back on the forum and can receive well wishes from his friends, if any. 



                                                                           

                                                                                           SAL E8's in freight service near the work train spur

                                                                           

                                                                                             SAL E8's spotted near Whalen's Apiary

This week's story is one that covers events that nearly resulted in the economic ruin of the A&S Railroad.  Over its lifetime, the A&S has survived both fire and flood, but a hostile takeover nearly did it in.  Here is the story.

                                                                                                         THE HOSTILE TAKEOVER

In 1948, the Atlantic Coast LIne Railroad, the successor to Henry B. Plant's West Florida railroad empire, decided it would be in its best interest to acquire the Atlantic & Southern Railroad.  ACL began to quietly buy up A&S stock.  When it became obvious that a hostile takeover bid was looming, A&S's President dedicated himself to resist it.

It was a David and Goliath struggle, with the little A&S coming up against the enormous resources of the ACL.  A&S'a lawyer, Marvin Bello, was up against the big-name railroad lawyers from Washington, D.C.

A stockholder's action was filed in the federal court in Orlando and the parties got set for trial.  It was decided that the ACL would settle for trackage rights over the A&S if the A&S could extend its line to Summit and construct a major freight yard there within 90 days.  Failure to extend the line as agreed would forfeit the title of the A&S to the ACL. 

A&S's Superintendent of Maintenance, Will Fixer, was enlisted to supervise construction and he laid into the task.  He marshaled  Patrick O'Clannahan's track gang and hired Joe Steeler, a former Army Supply Sergeant, to scrounge material.  Steeler searched the swampy areas adjacent to the mainline for previously purloined rails and, when added to some second-hand rails acquired by abandoning some seldom-used spurs, there were enough rails to do the job.  Ties were easy to get from Piney Woods.  Spikes and related iron pieces were purchased from the proceeds of a bake sale sponsored by Sweaty Betty and Paula Deen Perkins.

A&S's Number 71, an 0-8-0, was enlisted to push the flat cars up the Ovalix to Summit and on the first day the gang went to work with both speed and daring.  It was late November and they suffered from cold in the 60-degree weather.  (They were Florida boys from Tahope County.)  The construction went on schedule until it was discovered through miscalculation, there lacked about mile of track.

With only a day left to complete the contract, Will Fixer directed O'Clannahan to tear up the rails in Tahope and use them to complete the yard at Summit. 

The ACL lawyers discovered the missing rails when they exited Trackside Tavern that evening.  They promptly filed motions with the court for forfeiture of the A&S to the ACL on the basis of the implied condition that construction of the yard at Summit would not interfere with mainline operations on the A&S.  But Marvin Bello, who never lost a case, argued the agreement was complete as written and parole evidence of some implied condition was inadmissible.

"Judgment in favor of the A&S," said his Honor.

After leaving court, lead counsel for the ACL approached Marvin Bello and said, "You know, Marvin, you don't know squat about running a railroad, but you're one hell of a lawyer."  Then they all retired to Trackside Tavern, along with the Mayor and the City Council to enjoy a cold beer, sausage, and a performance by "Toots" Hussey, Maggie's older sister. (See Story of a Fallen Woman, page 28.)

jimmillho

Fantastic story Judge.  I can't believe you came up with that story while sitting here.

Jim

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

GPdemayo

Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

Bruce Oberleitner

Glad to hear that Jim Miller is doing better.

postalkarl

Hey Bill:

I agree great story and glad to hear Jim Miller is doing better.

Karl

Judge

#461
Saturday Report - December 14, 2019.

The Board convened at 0830, as usual.  The main topic was the installation of lighting in a Walthers Mainline Southern coach.  The A&S purchased several (11) of these cars of various configurations with the contemplation that a lighting "kit" was available.  So, the finance officer ordered two of the kits with that in mind.  Let me tell you about the installation. 

First, it is necessary to remove the roof from the passenger car.  That is usually a project in itself with a Walthers car, but the Mainline series has a different manufacturing approach.  The "windows" are all one clear plastic strip that is attached to the roof.  The instructions say simply to grab the car on either end and twist and the roof will "pop off."  NOT SO.  The photograph on the instruction sheet pictures a woman's hands doing this job and we can testify that ain't gonna happen.  We wrestled with the car and finally inserted toothpicks between the roof line and the car body to spread the body apart enough to remove the roof.

Once the roof was removed, we disassembled the car completely, but not by following the instructions.  The instructions said to first remove the "force-fitted" vestibule wall.  Ours was glued to the car deck.  No problem.  we unscrewed the floor and removed it.  This allowed the metal contact strips on the floor to fall out.   Then we tried to follow the directions using the photographs provided to install the contact devices against the front bulkhead of the car.  They are designed to be left and right contacts but the instructions leave that out.  in addition, the contacts have a small hole in them that is supposed to fit over a plastic stud in the bulkhead.  Unfortunately, the hole was too small to fit and had to be reemed out.  It was at this point when we determined that you can not test the lighting system unless you fully reassemble the car.  So, we proceeded to do just that.  Naturally, the lights didn't work and we got to practice removing the roof again.  A second assembly/disassembly provided the same results.  So, frustrated at the failure of this supposedly straight forward project, we gave up for the day.  Oh well, only an hour and a half was wasted.  Further adjustments may make the project a success, but that will have to be later in the week. 

Recommendation - Buy the Walthers passenger cars with lighting included.  Walthers has figured out how to make you wish you did.  Let some little Chinese girl install the lighting and don't complain about the extra cost. 

                                                                       
                                                                                             The car - Just twist and the roof will "pop off." 

                                                                       
                                                                                                     It takes tooth picks to remove the roof


                                                                       

                                                                                                     Walthers' version of Fifty-two Pick-up




                                                                                                    THE GREAT PAY CAR ROBBERY

On the 15th of each month, the Atlantic & Southern finance department issues cash payments for employees working "out on the line."  This monthly activity has not gone unnoticed by certain unsavory characters who are temporary residents in The Bottoms.

Two of these vagabonds, Wormey and Michael "Thumbs" Morgan, decided to take advantage of the pay schedule and withdraw a little pay for themselves.   They nailed a drag coming up the ovalix from The Bottoms and snuck into the Sanlando yard.  The pay car was spotted in front of the Depot awaiting the all-clear to move to the main and distribute pay in Piney Woods and then up the Ovalix to Summit. 

Wormey had his "piece" concealed in his ragged coat.  The plan was to advance to the pay car and demand the paymaster "stand and deliver" like days of old.  No one ever gave either of these two would-be robbers credit for having a lot of sense. 

Naturally, the would-be robbers did not contemplate that the railroad knew the pay car made its regular schedule and provided armed guards for security.  When the robbers demanded the paymaster to "stand and deliver, " they were met with the barrels of three double-barreled shotguns and were taken into custody by Officer Poovey of the Tahope Police Department.   

The trial commenced two weeks later with the defendants representing themselves.  The jury was out for less than ten minutes and found them guilty.  Since nobody was hurt and the charge was only attempted robbery, Judge Elvin P. Thomas sentenced them both to five years in Florida's prison, saying "Yer lucky you didn't git any monetary remuneration from this caper.  it could have been life."  A just result for two bad men who only tried to commit a crime and didn't have sense enough to complete it.

                                                                       

                                                                                                                  The Pay Car

ACL1504

Judge,

Great train robbery story! The attempt to install lights in one of Walthers economy Budd passenger cars, not so great. :'( Just saying.

Tom 8)

"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

jimmillho

Oh well. try, try again (either the lights or the robbery).

Jim

PRR Modeler

Great story Bill. Those darn people from the Bottoms.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

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