The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

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

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GPdemayo

Let's  hear it for the outstanding A&S security guys.....another winner Bill.  8)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

Judge

#466
Saturday Report - December 20, 2019  - 72 degrees and partly cloudy

This is the monthly Saturday when the Babe and Tom venture to Mt. Dora for the beauty treatment.  So, there is no formal Saturday Report.

However, there needs to be some follow-up on my last missive complaining about the Walthers lighting kit for Mainline passenger cars.  My opinion of the kit has not changed.  But my attitude has changed for the better.  Tom never gives up on a project until it is in the state of perfection and he figured out how to install the lighting kits with only a minimum of adjustment to the kit.  He is working his own thread on the subject and there is no need to try to make my comments redundant.  However, once the Langford solution is applied to these cars they work perfectly and the lights are actually constant intensity.  It just takes a little extra effort (on top of the plenty of extra effort already needed to install a simple light bar.)  We should ultimately have a nine-car Southern RR passenger train pulled by green, white, and gold E7's.  At that point we will have to decide if the grab iron kits are worth it.

The basis of this week's story comes from tales my father told me when I was growing up.  Dad lived in Lakeland, Florida, and that city had a large (ACL) roundhouse and repair facility.  in the years before WWI until the end of steam, some of the lucky high school boys got to get up early each morning and wake up (call) the engine crews who were bunked in a hotel near the railroad.  After waking up the crew, they got to hang out in the roundhouse until school time and watch the goings-on.  Naturally, these young lads were called "Call boys." 

Now some of the readers of this Report are familiar with the term "call girls."  Call girls were (and still are) in the business of recreation and not furthering the schedule of the railroad.  Call boys had little in common with call girls unless, during the wake-up process, an out-of-town railroader happened to acquire one for recreational purposes.  In that event, call boys were sworn to secrecy and sometimes given a 50 cent piece for their silence. 

The Lakeland roundhouse could perform all but the most major repairs and I remember tales of changing a tire on a Copperhead ten-wheeler and, while my dad watched, two mechanics loosened a fixture on a locomotive while one of them held a 5' chisel to the fixture and the other one slammed it with a sledgehammer.   It was dirty work and, after school, some of the call boys would return to the roundhouse for more introduction into the world of steam maintenance.  I'm sure their mothers, like my grandmother, had a few things to say when their children came home covered with grease and coal dust. 

Anyway, this week's story has to do with the life and lot of call boys on the Atlantic & Southern RR.

                                                                                                                   CALL BOYS

During the steam era, mostly before WWII, the crews would "tie up" for the evening at the Tahope Roundhouse and spend the night in the Hotel Imperial in downtown Tahope.  Now the A&S was always cost-conscious and the rooms at the Imperial met the standards of the day but were not fancy.  The hotel was a 19th-century structure that had only recently had electricity installed, along with indoor plumbing.  it had no elevators but each floor had a bath and shower at the end of the hall.

In those days, the A&S hired high school boys as call boys.  Their job was to awaken the crews before dawn so they could arrive at the roundhouse on time to make their regular runs. 

These boys usually made 25 cents a day for their efforts, which was a good stipend in the days before the Great War. 

Railroaders are an ornery bunch and call boys learned to be on the alert for angry men who were awakened after a night of drinking at the Trackside Tavern and only a few hours of sleep.  They also learned to be discrete in the event they discovered a railroader from out of town who had managed to find some feminine company for the night.  In such cases, their discretion was handsomely rewarded with a generous contribution for their silence. 

The City of Tahope is a division point on the A&S RR and a number of boys from Tahope County High School were chosen to be call boys.  The school principal made recommendations from the best-behaved students and the railroad picked from the list.  Kids like "Bennie" Cartwright, who was captain of the school football team, and Willie Hunter, whose father was president of the Tahope State Bank, were chosen, while Duffy Doofer and Charlie "Catfish" Baker, both of whom had juvenile records, were not.

"Bennie" would awaken at 4:00 a.m. and report to the yardmaster's office.  By that time the hostlers were well on their way to building up steam in the boilers of the engines scheduled to make a morning run.  The yardmaster gave Bennie his list of crew members to wake up and he began his wake-up calls.  Today's list included a young brakeman from Jacksonville named Jack O'Malley and when Bennie opened the hotel room door to awaken him, he discovered a young lass keeping him warm.  Yes, it was Maggie Hussey, supplementing her income from the Trackside Tavern.  Maggie knew Bennie from 4-H Club activities before she was expelled from school so that cost O'Malley an additional 50 cents to keep Bennie silent about the encounter.

The job of being a call boy was perfect for these boys because they could hang out in the roundhouse after the crews were awakened and snoop around to see what was going on.  They could listen to the tales told by the crews and learn a thing or two about railroading. 

But all good things come to an end, and soon they had to be off to school to learn about things that had nothing to do with being a railroad engineer, which is what they all wanted to do.

                                                                       

                                                                                                             The Hotel Impeerial

                                                                       

                                                                                            Inside the Roundhouse Early in the Morning

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

GPdemayo

Sounds like a fun job, but the hours kinda suck..... ;D
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

Judge

#469
Saturday Report - December 27, 2019.  Temp. 75 degrees, partly cloudy.  Drizzle intermittently. 

The Bored Directors convened promptly at 0830 hours.  The main topic was inventory reduction.  We decided to liquidate some locomotives that are duplicates and have been stored in their boxes for over 10 years.  Management will probably use Ebay, but if any of the readers of this report are in the market for ACL or SAL diesels, give Tom a jingle.

The morning was taken up with running a POL train (that's petroleum, oil, and lubricants to you non-military types) powered by two ACL purple and silver Geep 7's from the Bottoms to Summit where the tankers were dropped and a 21-car mixed freight was made up.  This train made its rounds at Summit and returned to Sanlando yard just prior to lunch.  Oh, yes, the session was interrupted by the arrival of Bob Butts and Greg DeMayo.  We all went to lunch at Smokey Bones.

After lunch, a lash-up of two Central of Georgia E7's with a C of G SD9 sandwiched in between made the rounds on the Tahope level. 

Then we called it a day.

This week's story will be familiar to those who remember their first day on a new job.  There are invariably screw-ups that embarrass the new employee, but ususally they are survivable. 

                                                                                                            FIRST DAY ON THE JOB

Those who follow this weekly Report will recall that "shiftless skonk," Shortstack achieved promotion from roundhouse sweeper to brakeman due to his heroic, although self-preserving, efforts to save a runaway coal drag which was speeding down the Ovalix.  You will also recall that Shortstack was instructed to report to the roundhouse and get his name on the Extra Board. 

It was shortly afterward when Shortstack received a "call" to brake train #44, the ACL daily local that originates at Sanlando and meanders through Tahope, switching cars, and then proceeds up the Ovalix to Summit.  Oddly enough, Shortstack was assigned as the head-end brakeman (head shack), which meant he would ride in the cab of the engine during the trip. 

Shortstack arrived at the Sanlando diesel service facility first thing on Monday morning, ready to show his stuff on his first day at work as a paid railroader.  He walked over to the two GP&'s, numbered 313 and 311 that were assigned as power for#44.

Shortstack was the only member of the crew assigned to #44 that day who was not a veteran railroader.  The engineer assigned to #44 that day was a crusty old hogger named "Uncle Henry" O'Leary, who looked at Shortstack with disdain and didn't even bother to say "good morning" to him.  The conductor, Melvin Hatter, greeted Shortstack with a grin and warned him to "stay clear of Uncle Henry."  The fireman, whose name was Jim, busied himself with the engine and took his seat just as Uncle Henry eased the consist out of the service facility into the yard and coupled up to the 20-car train.

It was not necessary for two GP7's to be assigned to the 20-car train, but it was ACL practice to put at least two units to any consist that would travel up the Ovalix, due to recovery difficulties if there were mechanical problems with one of the engines.

Uncle Henry pulled his train out of the yard and onto the mainline, heading across the Great Divide, over the bridge at Mosquito Lagoon, through Piney Woods, and around the Bedford Forrest reverse loop to the spur leading to Tahope. 

A boxcar full of furniture was picked up at Skokill's and an empty one was left in its place.  Other boxcars were switched at industries along the way and two hopper cars were spotted under the coal tipple at the roundhouse. 

Uncle Henry must have forgotten he was running diesels because he jerked a knuckle when he dropped the coal hoppers.  That meant Shortstack, the hind shack, and the conductor got to replace the knuckle, causing much consternation and delay. 

Local ordinance prohibits the sounding of whistles or horns in downtown Tahope, so the engine crew rang the engine's bell while watching the 12-mph speed restriction.  Uncle Henry noticed the bell was not ringing normally.  The clapper would get stuck every so often.

The climb up the Ovalix was without incident and the through cars were dropped at Summit Yard, awaiting transfer to Jacksonville.  It was time for lunch, but Uncle Henry ordered Shortstack to stay with the engine while the rest of the crew walked over to a beanery for eats. 

Uncle Henry thought he could repair the problem with the bell, so he decided to move the diesels to the RIP track where it was spotted over the outdoor repair pit.  He growled at Shortstack, saying "I'm going down to see if I can repair the bell.  Don't move from your seat and don't touch anything." 

Now Shortstack wanted to make a good impression on his first day of the job, but he had been working the train for several hours an, after eight cups of black coffee, the call of nature was beckoning to him. 

The Coast Line ran their Geeps short hood first, with the bell located under the short hood.  The crew's toilet was located down a couple of steps in the short hood and Shortstack decided it would be better to use the toilet instead of the great outdoors.  After all, Shortstack had his dignity.

After Shortstack was completely relieved, he pushed the flush handle, discharging the toilet's contents to the ground below.  That is when he heard Uncle Henry angrily hollering a stream of cuss words.  As Uncle Henry climbed up to the cab, Shortstack could see he was soaking wet.  I mean, how was Shortstack to know the toilet discharge pipe was located next to the bell?  Maybe that is why the sign that said "DO NOT FLUCH WHILE TRAIN IS IN STATION" was posted above the toilet. 

Shortstack made a split-second decision to dismount on the fireman's side just in time to avoid meeting up with Uncle Henry.  He ran as fast as he could to the yardmaster's office.  The yardmaster noticed Shortstack was seriously troubled and, after questioning, learned what had happened.  "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving hogger," said the yardmaster, who offered to hide Shortstack in his tool shed.

Train #444 made it back to Sanlando without Shortstack.  When he was called for another trip the next day, he was relieved (no pun intended) to learn that "Fatso" Johnson would be the engineeer. 

                                                                               


                                                                               
                                                                               

ReadingBob

Another gem of a story.   ;D  I don't know how you do it.  I love following along.   ;D  ;D
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

deemery

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

Zephyrus52246


PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

GPdemayo

I guess Shortstack should get points for effort, but he just might not have what is required for this type of employment..... :)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

jbvb

Many 'dry hopper' toilets I used up through the '80s were simpler - a 6" pipe through which you could see the ties passing (and feel a cold draft in season).  Lightweight passenger cars (though not the B&M's Budd RDCs) had fancier setups with a pan that actually flushed. Amtrak Heritage 10-6s were the last in service AFAIK.
James

Judge

James - When I was just a tot (age 9) my mother and I traveled from Millen, Georgia, where her brother and sister lived, to Orlando by train.  The train was powered by one of C O G's beautiful 4700 series 4-8-2's. The C of G took us from Millen to Savannah and we rode in a 1920's ventage 14 section Pullman.  The Pullman was switched to the ACL passenger train (diesel-powered) at night and we woke up in Orlando the next morning.  It was the only time I got to sleep in a Pullman section.  I do remember the toilet flushing directly onto the roadbed and that was the way things were well into the 60's when I took the train from Chattanooga to Orlando.  I know the environmentalists must have been at work to change that sewage disposal system but for the life of me, I cannot remember anyone getting sick from licking ballast or the aquafer being polluted due to the waste.   

What happened?  Maybe I will Google it.

The Judge

postalkarl

Hey Judge:

The Brownsville Station looks great. Like the color changes from the ones in the kit. I also really like that tall hotel.

Karl

vinceg

Quote from: postalkarl on December 31, 2019, 07:56:33 AM
Hey Judge:

The Brownsville Station looks great. Like the color changes from the ones in the kit. I also really like that tall hotel.

Karl

Yes, indeed. The Brownsville station looks fantastic. Any chance we could get some close-ups?
Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

ACL1504

Quote from: vinceg on December 31, 2019, 09:59:24 AM
Quote from: postalkarl on December 31, 2019, 07:56:33 AM
Hey Judge:

The Brownsville Station looks great. Like the color changes from the ones in the kit. I also really like that tall hotel.

Karl

Yes, indeed. The Brownsville station looks fantastic. Any chance we could get some close-ups?


Vince,

I'll get some and post them on the regular Atlantic and Southern build thread.  Appreciate the interest. Reading Bob built this beautiful kit for me.

Tom ;D
"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

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