The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

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

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GPdemayo

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

Judge

#406
ATLANTIC & SOUTHERN  Saturday Report October 19, 2019

    It was a rainy Saturday here in Central Florida due to a tropical storm plowing through the panhandle and dumping water in abundance on the Big Bend.  We got a steady rain for several hours this far south of the main storm and our temperature stayed at a comfortable but muggy 73 degrees most of the morning. 
    The Bored Directors of the A&S convened their Saturday meeting a little early this morning and spent some time inventorying new equipment and planning the day.  We decided to add a couple of cars to the Pennsy Broadway Limited to make it prototypical so the train stretched 15 cars behind 3 E7 diesel units.  That train is almost too long for the railroad but it is fun watching it.  There is a storage track on the East side of the Bottoms that is long enough for the train to be spotted when it is not needed.  We were in the Pennsy mood so we also ran a 21-car coal hopper freight with three Pennsy F2's providing the power. 
    After the Pennsy trains returned to the north, we ran the Central of Georgia SD9 with a freight train and switched power to C of G E7's.
    Lunch at Smokey Bones, as usual.
   After lunch, we moved the ACL Champion to the Bottoms to free up some space. 
    All-in-all, it was a really fun Saturday.

    This week's story is a description of the railroads represented on the A&S and an explanation of why some seemingly out-of-place railroads are represented. 
    First, the readers should know that the A&S was originally a "deep South" railroad limited to famous Florida flags like the ACL, Southern, SAL, and FEC.  However,  these railroads had an ownership interest in other "mostly southern" railroads like the L&N, N.C.& St. L, C&O, C of G, Clinchfield, and a few others.  These roads are represented due to their family relationship with the ACL and the Southern.
    The Pennsy and the roads that powered the California Zephyr are represented in a whimsical way because, as to the Zephyr, we liked it, and as to the Pennsy, we had a long relationship with a devoted Pennsy fan who owned Orlando's best RR hobby shop for many years.  When he passes away in 2006, we acquired a number of Pennsy steamers and rolling stock.  We decided the A&S is our railroad and if we want to run Pennsy trains now and then for fun well, it is our railroad.
   
                                                                                    THE RAILROADS ON THE ATLANTIC & SOUTHERN
    The Atlantic & Southern System (ASS) hosts the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL), Seaboard Air Line (SAL) and Southern Ry, all of which have trackage rights over the line.  The Louisville & Nashville, N. C. & St. L, Chesapeake & Ohio and Central of Georgia (C of G) have passenger and freight agreements with either the ACL or the Southern and provide relief during peak seasons as needed. 
    The Illinois Central's City of Miami passenger train occasionally passes through on its way from Chicago to Miami twice a week,  The "City" is operated by a number of railroads, including the ACL and the FEC and each road contributes to the consist.   The "City" usually runs from Jacksonville to Miami on FEC tracks but a section follows ACL trackage through Tahope County to Orlando and down to Miami.  Usually, a sleeper is set out at Sanlando for transfer to Tampa by way of Kissimmee, Holopaw, Hachnehaw, Yehaw Junction, and Thonotosassa by way of ACL's  East Coast Champion. 
    The A&S owns a few steam locomotives outright and leases or "borrows" others.  There are no plans to dieselize the A&S locomotive fleet. 
    The A&S contracts with the larger roads to provide maintenance on locomotives and has a modern roundhouse and two diesel repair facilities to provide that service. 
    The A&S provides local freight and passenger service in the rural Tahope County area.
    Recently, the Board of Directors saw the need for a westward connection, so it leased a section of the California Zephyr, including Burlington and Rio Grande F units.  This train provides weekly service out of Jacksonville to New Orleans and has been named the Gulf Breeze section of the Pensacola Zephyr.  This train is a major revenue producer for the railroad.
    The A&S and the environs of Tahope County have regular need for coal, both for fuel for steam locomotives and for electric power.  Also, coal is vital for heating during the three days each winter when the temperature drops below 50 degrees.  The Pennsylvania Railroad happily provides the motive power for a weekly coal train in exchange for free passes over the A&S for Pennsy brass hats.
    In addition to coal trains, the Pennsy's Broadway Limited swings south occasionally to service Florida bound travelers and it makes stops at Jacksonville and Sanlando when scheduled. 
    President Langford gave the Pennsy president several free passes to travel over the A&S and asked him to reciprocate with free passes over the Pennsy.  When he suggested this arrangement, the Pennsy president wondered how that would be fair, considering the Pennsy had over 10,000 miles of track and the A&S is a local line located in a Central Florida Swamp.  He was won over when President Langford said, "Your railroad may be a mite longer than mine, but mine is just as wide."
    The Pennsy has excess still serviceable steam locomotives and has agreed to loan a number of them to the A&S .  These locomotives were scheduled for the scrap heap due to the Pennsy dieselization program and the A&S needs additional motive power during the busy winter season.  Recently, the A&S made lease arrangements with the Pennsy and acquired several Pennsy diesel locomotives.  These units will be used to augment the busy winter traffic but will not replace steam locomotive power on the A&S.

                                                                     
                                               Recently acquired C of G E7's in freight duty awaiting assignment to the Atlanta-to-Savanna Nancy Hanks.

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

S&S RR

Great story behind a well run railroad.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

ReadingBob

There have even been reported sightings of a Reading T1 and Jersey Central HH660 on the A&S.  But the boys who reported that may have been sipping some shine at the time so the sightings are considered unconfirmed.   ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

Bruce Oberleitner

I love the reports.  Keep em coming Judge!

;D ;D ;D

BandOGuy

Quote from: ReadingBob on October 20, 2019, 09:51:48 AM
There have even been reported sightings of a Reading T1 and Jersey Central HH660 on the A&S.  But the boys who reported that may have been sipping some shine at the time so the sightings are considered unconfirmed.   ;)

Not entirely implausible.'
The management of the A&S has demonstrated keen judgement in most other areas: the appearance of these two titans is obviously not outside the realm of possibility.
Working on my second million. I gave up on the first.

Dennis Bourey

Yet another!!!!!!!!! Thanks Judge......Dennis
Dennis Bourey
dpbourey@comcast.net

Lake's Region RR
(Happy Modeling)

Judge

Thank all of you for your kind comments.  A description of Atlantic & Southern (at least of the Midlands) will follow one Saturday after the Tahope Branch Line is completed.

Meanwhile, there will be some rats in the home office.  Stay tuned.

MAP

Great historical information on the ASS Bill.  Shows why the RR has been profitable all these years!  And heck, like you said, it's your railroad and can operate it as you see fit.  Looking forward to the next one.
Mark

Judge

#416
AAtlantic & Southern Saturday Report - October 26, 2019

The crew assembled promptly at 0830 hours to marvel at the A&S's newly delivered Southern E8A units by Proto 2000.  They are beauties and that is the good news.  The bad news is they come with LOC Sound - I don't know how you pronounce that, but I really don't care.  The decoders had problems right out of the box and they sound terrible at best.  Best advertisement for TCS WOW Sound your reporter has seen.

                                                                   

We had trouble early on with a mysterious "short" that bugged us on the Summit.  After much push and pull, including changing out a Digitrax booster, we found the culprit to be an errant Pennsy steam locomotive. Once removed from the track all went well.  In fact, changing out the booster solved other problems.

Greg DeMayo arrived in time for lunch at Smokey Bones.

After lunch we ran the Broadway Limited down from Summit to the Midlands with little difficulty except for an open switch.  The Cof G E7's delivered freight to the Sanlando yard and we called it a day. 

Today's story is a sad tale of a  fallen woman named Magnolia (Maggie) Hussy (Most of the "wimmin" in Tahope are named after flowers or plants.)  A pathetic soul who we will no doubt meet again another Saturday.

                                                                                                         The Tale of a Fallen Woman

After having served his sentence for theft of A&S Commissary meat products (See p. 19 - Tahope Code Talkers) Wormy returned to the Bottoms to resume his normal life, namely plotting another criminal enterprise.  This time it was to be an inside job. 

Wormy gathered several of his fellow vagabonds together around the fire heating the Mulligan Stew one evening and discussed his plan.  The men were joined with a new addition to the Bottoms, a lass of questionable habits and reputation, although not without physical charms, named Magnolia (Maggie) Hussy.  Maggie was expelled from Tahope County High School in 1946 for promiscuous activity.  Now she calls an abandoned boxcar sidetracked on the east side of the Bottoms her home and lives off of what she can catch in the river.  As Wormy later described her, "She looks pretty darn good after a bath in the river and the fish smell is an improvement." 

Wormy explained his plan, which required an accomplice to infiltrate into the A&S Accounting and Disbursement Office with the object of relieving the management of some cash revenue. 

"I need somebody who knows money and will work with me cheap," said Wormy.  Maggie replied, "I'm cheap."  And a partnership was born. 

Maggie made an application to the A&S Financial Office as a bookkeeper.  She told Wormy, "I will use my considerable charms, of which I have many, to wiggle my way into the highest level of financial management."  Or she said something like that.

The A&S Financial Officer, Alex Hamilton, was so impressed with Maggie's "enthusiasm" that he hired her as a trainee bookkeeper in spite of her lack of experience.  Normally, he did not cotton to attractive, inexpensive women, but Maggie was exceptional and he figured his male employees would keep their distance because of the odor. 

Not long after Maggie went to work, little amounts of cash started missing because Wormy and Maggie were making "dry runs" to get their plan down to perfection.  Unbeknownst to our would-be white collar criminals, Hamilton got wind of the plan due to the missing petty cash. 

One day the pay car arrived at the yard at Summit with the payroll from the Tahope State Bank and the thieves put their plan into action.  Wormy, disguised as an engineer from Summit, came into the office with a requisition form to collect the payroll.  Maggie counted out $9,500.00 and put it into Wormy's pay satchel.  She did not know the serial numbers on the bills had been recorded. 

Wormy scampered to the Trackside Tavern with his share of the loot to celebrate his good fortune and paid for his beer with a $50.00 bill that he got from the heist.  The bartender, Clovis Butcher, thought it suspicious for Wormy to have so large a bill so he called the Tahope Police Department as a precaution.  Officer Poovey responded to the call and, after looking at the serial number on the bill, arrested Wormy for the theft.  Further investigation led to the discovery of Maggie, who was also arrested. 

Wormy hired Marvin Bello to represent him, paying his fee with another one of the $50.00 bills.  Bello, who never lost a case, convinced the prosecutor that the caper was all Maggie's fault and Wormy was only the bag man.  The story was credible because Maggie seemed to be the smarter of the two.  Wormy testified against Maggie at the trial and the jury convicted her of embezzlement.  Judge Elvin P. Thomas reviewed the evidence and, before imposing sentence, lectured Maggie for stealing money from the Atlantic & Southern Railroad that belonged to its employees.  He also pointed out that a successful thief never steals more than she can pay back.  He sentenced her to a year and a day in prison.  Wormy got off with 60 days in jail persuant to his plea bargin. 

Justice is meted out fairly in Tahope County, just like everywhere else.

                                                                                                           The Rest of the Story

The Florida Supreme Court considered Maggie's case and reversed her conviction some nine months after she entered prison.  She returned to the Bottoms and her normal life of living off of what she can catch from the Tahope Rvier.  Sweaty Betty cooks what she catches for a share of the turtles, fish and crabs.



                                                                                                 


GPdemayo

Great yarn Bill.....a grand day was had by all on the ole' A&S..... 8)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

jimmillho

That has got to be true story.  "Only in Florida"

Great report Bill.

Jim

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

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