The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

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

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S&S RR

John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

Judge

#361
September 7, 2019

Well, fellow railroaders, there is no Saturday report today for two reasons.  The A&S Railroad is shut down because the new power source has not arrived to replace the one that was fried by a lightning strike some days before the drizzle passed through Central Florida called Hurricane Dorian.   It is on order from Digitrax and hopefully will arrive this week.  Additionally, and more importantly, today is the Babe's hair-do day and so the A&S CEO is off to Mount Dora.

There will be a new story today.  However, it will not be accompanied by photographs.  I got the idea for this story from an old Trains magazine from the 1940's.  The A&S Railroad is dated in the early 1950's and I remember as a little boy seeing brakemen walking on top of moving boxcars.  All freight cars had air brakes then so maybe walking the tops of boxcars was the way to get from the engine to the caboose.

                                                                                                                MIXED SIGNALS

    As the A&S grew in revenue, the need for additional trains became evident.  Freight trains were added between Tampa, Orlando, Tahope, and Jacksonville.  The ACL added a second section to the Champion in the winter season and the SAL added a second section to the Silver Meteor.  Additional trains meant additional employees and a notice was posted at the roundhouse and in City Hall advertising for brakemen trainees.
    One of the veteran engineers on the A&S was a crusty old Irishman named Uncle Henry O'Leary.  Uncle Henry usually was assigned to the local freight that made its way from Tahope to Summit.  Uncle Henry's practice was to head into the wye at Summit and cut off the engine from the freight, finish switching, recouple to the train , and finish the run.
    Well, on this particular day he drew one of the new brakemen, a local boy named Oliver Carpenter, who had only two weeks experience.  He showed up wearing cotton pants and a shirt instead of overalls and he wore a black cowboy hat instead of a railroader's hat.  When Uncle Henry drew near the first leg of the wye, the new apprentice was atop the second boxcar.  To keep the wind from blowing his hat away, he stuffed it into his back pocket.  The hind shack stuck his head up over the roof of the last boxcar and pattted his head to signal that Uncle Henry would pull into the wye engine first.  Carpenter did not know what the signal meant, and thinking the hind shack was worried he had lost his hat, he turned his back to him and patted his right hip pocket. 
    With that, the hind shack exploded with a variety of choice expletives and descriptive adjectives and turning to the conductor said, "Look at that so and so brakeman.  He's broke here only two weeks and when I tell him Uncle Henry's going to head in, he says he's going to back around and run in.  Where do they get these greenhorns?
    Probably from the Bottoms.


GPdemayo

Another good one Bill.....good help is always hard to find, especially if you have to go to The Bottoms.  :)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

ReadingBob

Glad to see we had another great story this week in spite of the RR's downtime.   ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

There's a fine line between Hobby and Mental Illness.

Judge

Saturday Report - September 14, 2019

    The Board of Directors of the Atlantic & Southern Railroad convened at 0815 for the usual Saturday morning con-fab.  No serious business was conducted but your reporter got to inspect the new building to be erected in Tahope south of the river.  Your reporter also  tried his hand at "speed matching" of the newly acquired E8A units lettered for Illinois Central's City of Miami.  Speed matching can be done through verbal commands without resorting to the program track.  Just another feature of TCS WOW Sound decoders.  The attempt was pretty successful for a first try.  We ran the "City" around Summit and down to the Midlands before spotting it in the Bottoms.  We also moved several passenger cars into their proper locations on the East Side storage tracks.  Next week we will organize some of the freight trains on the West Side.
    We have a 20+ car reffer train powered by ACL F3's and we delivered the goods in the reefers throughout the Midlands, including a trip through downtown Tahope. 
    Greg Demayo arrived about 1030 and the new C of G SD9 was put through its paces.  Then we went to lunch at Smokey Bones.
    After lunch we ran more trains.  With a two week layoff behind us, it sure was good to get our hands on a throttte again.

    This week's story features scary ghosts and strange happenings.  Read on if you are stout of heart and have no fear.

                                                                                                       The Ghost of Bedford Forrest

    The wooded area located just to the north of the Ovalix in the Midlands is known as Bedford Forrest.  It is named after the famous four-star Confederate General of the same name - and, yes, he spelled it with two r's.  Many of the inhabitants of Tahope County in 1950 have ancestors who fought on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Florida did not become a state until 1845, so it was new to the Union at the time the war formally started in 1861.  While Florida was never invaded by the Union Army, Key West remained occupied as a Union military installation and Ft. Myers was occupied by Union troops from before the war until its end.  The war did "touch" Florida through the loss of many Confederate soldiers, killed and wounded.  And many long time Florida natives see nothing wrong with honoring the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for the Confederacy.
    A wye is partially hidden in Bedford Forrest and, because the ground is covered with good old Florida sand, it is the home of small game such as gopher turtles, rabbits, and quail.  Occasionally, a Florida black bear wanders through the forest looking for easy prey and honey bees.  (Recently, the bears have started raiding the hives near the apiary located in South Tahope.)  The forest would be quite tranquil but for the noise the railroad makes.  The sound of locomotives and freight cars almost constantly traveling through the area reduces the wildlife activity.
    Some say the forest is haunted.  An eerie light has reportedly been seen on moonless nights and local residents avoid the area due to the supposed danger.  The origin of the ghost begins with the tragic death of a conductor, Hap Hatter, who lost his life on the south leg of the wye in 1934.  Hatter was decapitated while he was uncoupling a boxcar on a local freight.  His foot slipped and he fell on the track in front of a moving car.  The locals claim the mysterious light that appears at night is Hatter's lantern, which his ghost is carrying to locate his head.
    The light has been blamed on headlights from vehicles on the distant highway, but the light appeared well before the highway was constructed in 1947.  A complaint was recently made to the Tahope Police Department and Officer Poovey was assigned to investigate. 
    Officer Poovey approached the forest on a moonless night with fear and trepidation.  He crept through the thick woods with gun drawn and ready.  He saw a light glowing in the distance and advanced to learn its source.  The light came from close to ground level and showed the faint outline of a boxcar.  Poovey could hear two brakemen discussing the situation but it was too dark to see them.  He could tell that one voice came from ground level and the other came from atop of the boxcar.  When the brakey on the tops told the brakey on the ground to "throw the lantern up to me," Poovey could not understand what was said. 
    Suddenly, Poovey observed the light rapidly rising from the ground and making an arc above the boxcar before going out.  Poovey, who by this time was very frightened, turned and ran back to his patrol car as fast as his legs could carry him.
   The next morning, Poovey reported to the Chief of Police and explained what he saw the night before.  He said, "There's ghosts alright!  Last night I saw a boxcar spotted on the wye and heard the ghosts talking to one another.  One ghost was standing on the ground with a lantern and the other ghost was atop the box car.  The ghost on the ground jumped all the way to the top of the boxcar and put out the light.  That's when I turned tail for town.  Never been so scared in my life!"
    And the legend of the Ghost of Bedford Forrest goes on.
                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                     

 

                         
 

ACL1504

Judge,

Great, this is another reason even I don't walk the Bedford Forrest Wye at night. 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

bparrish

Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

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

jimmillho

I consider myself lucky to have never been on the Bedford Forrest Wye at night.  There is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Jim

Judge

#370
Saturday Report - September 21, 2019
    The Board of Directors met promptly at 0830 hours and began the meeting with a Coke and a diet Pepsi.  A box full of new items were received from various manufacturers, including several Budd passenger cars that will be assigned to our Southern passenger trains.  Additionally, a load of lumber (HO scale) and a number of little people were included.  The most important of the little people were the beekeepers, who will be placed next to the apiary as soon as it is moved into place. 
    The next item on the agenda was our continued efforts to classify and spot trains on the tracks in the Bottoms.  Last week we arranged our passenger fleet and this week the effort was on freight. 
    We received a number of new "bass speakers" from TCS.  The CEO has assigned the installation task for installation of two of the new speakers to Will Fixer's roundhouse foreman and we expect to be able to compare the quality with other, inferior, speakers next Saturday.
    Classifying freight trains gave us the opportunity to run several trains from the Bottoms to Summit and into the Midlands so, absent the usual Saturday morning gremlins, we had few mishaps and much revenue was generated for the A&S in the process.

    This week's story is one of success and sadness.  It was wonderful to live in Central Florida in 1950 and hear the lonesome whistles of ACL's Pacifics as they traveled through Orlando in the night.  But, all good things must come to an end - but wait!  The ACL steamers still pound the rails on the A&S and they have lasted years longer than the originals.  They are just a bit smaller.  Now for the story.

                                                                                                              Wayne Shoemaker

    Tahope County is sparsely populated, like many Florida counties in 1050.  In the winter there are a number of migrants who swell the population to nearly 10,000, but normally the population is much less than that.  For instance, the City of Tahope, the county seat, only has a population of 1504.  It's one of those southern counties where everybody knows everybody.
    Wayne Shoemaker is the son of Walter and Buttercup Shoemaker (Most of the wimmmin folk in Tahope are named after flowers or plants).  Wayne used to enjoy the summers because he could go barefoot and fish in the Tahhope River that runs south of town.  Wayne's dad is the manager of the local orange packing facility located near the banks of the River.   Wayne's mother is an English teacher at Tahope County High School. 
    One Saturday in June 1925, when Wayne was 10 years old, he wandered onto the yard at the A&S roundhouse and engine facility.  He had always been fascinated by the railroad, which was so much the lifeblood of his community, and he dreamed of one day becoming an engineer on a steam locomotive. 
    Anyway, Wayne walked along one of the lead tracks towards the roundhouse and stopped at the coaling tower.  There he saw A&S number 71 spotted under the coal chute.  The fireman pulled the chain to open the chute and a couple of tons of coal fell into the tender.  The fireman saw Wayne watching this performance and said, "Hi, there, young'n.  You like steam engines?"  To which Wayne answered, "Boy! Do I!"  "Well, then, climb up into the cab and I'll show you how she works." 
    Wayne climbed into the cab and the fireman, a local man named Mike Weaver (many of the inhabitants of Tahope have last names that reflect midieval occupations), pointed out all of the valves and gages on the backhead.  Then he let Wayne sit in the engineer's seat.
    About that time, the hogger climbed aboard and Mike asked him if Wayne could ride in the cab while number 71 switched the citrus plant.  Wayne was allowed to ride and he shoveled coal and blew the whistle, a three chimer.
    At the end of the day Wayne was convinced that life as a railroader was for him and he longed for the day he would sit in the engineer's seat in charge of his own freight train. 
    Wayne graduated from Tahope High School in 1933 and hired on with the Atlantic Coast Line as a brakeman.  He broke for that railroad until 1940 when he finally qualified as a fireman.  His name was written up on the extra board and he was called the next day to fie on a local freight.  He climbed into the cab of ACL's number 835, a USRA Mike, and began checking the boiler pressure and water level.  He was a little nervous, beins how this was his first day on the job and he knew some of the engineers had little patience with green firemen. 
    The hogger climbed up the ladder on the right side of the engine and extended his hand to Wayne.  He said, "Don't I know you?  Could you be Wayne Shoemaker, the little boy I gave a ride to back in 1925?  "Well, said Wayne, you must be Mike Weaver, the guy who was the fireman that day."  "Yep," said Mike, now grab that shovel  and bring the pressure up so we can highball out of here on time." 
    Wayne was finally promoted to engineer in 1953, but by that time, number 835 had been scrapped ane Wayne learned how to handle a freight train with a brace of F2's. 
    And I guess they call that progress. 

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Zephyrus52246


Dennis Bourey

I agree Judge, Great story..........Dennis
Dennis Bourey
dpbourey@comcast.net

Lake's Region RR
(Happy Modeling)

MAP

Mark

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