The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

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

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Dennis Bourey

Dennis Bourey
dpbourey@comcast.net

Lake's Region RR
(Happy Modeling)

Judge

#661
Dennis, Curt, Greg and John - Thank you for the kind words.  I appreciate comments and suggestions.

                                                                                                       THE REST OF THE STORY

This week's story about the Spotter was conceived by me after I read a rather long tale in the October 1938 issue of Railroad Magazine.  Several days after I read the tale, I picked up one of the many Atlantic Coast Line books in my library and opened it up to the first page.  I looked at a photograph of an ACL local passenger train powered by a pair of FP7s trailed by several headend cars and a few heavyweight coaches.  I suddenly remembered that Tom Langford used the photo to visualize the cut passing through Perkins Farm on the mainline of the Atlantic & Southern.  That is when I thought to make the ACL part of the story about the Spotter and to ask Tom to make the video.  (Actually, we made two videos. Tom posted one on his thread and I posted the other at the end of this week's story.)

Regular readers of the Saturday Report will recognize Bruce Bonebreaker.  He appeared as the defendant in the Butts Bar-B-Q shootout (page eight) and later as the owner of the Trackside Tavern (page twenty-one).   

I have attached the photo I saw in the ACL book.  I have included it so my loyal readers can compare the photo with the video and see just how close Tom came to capturing the essence of this rural Florida scene. 


                                                                   



ReadingBob

Great story as well as background information as to the inspiration for the cut through Perkin's farm.  :D
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

PaulS

Excellent as always Bill.  And thanks for the back story on this weeks report and article.
Amazing work by Tom after seeing the inspiration that he worked from and how close he got to the look and feel of the picture you provided.


Great work guys on all accounts !!!   And though I don't always comment, I am always following along the exploits of the A&S, the activities of the Butty Group, and the weekly 'Saturday Evening Post' ...
Thanks Bill and Tom for allowing us along on your A&S journey !!
AND a Happy Father's Day to all,
--Paul
Modeling the Atlantic & White Mtn Railway

Judge

Thank you for the kind comment Paul. 


Judge

#665
Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report, June 27, 2020  - It's summer in Florida.  The temperature is over 95 degrees and the humidity is over 85%.  You get drenched with sweat just walking from your house to your garage.  Not a good time for y'all to visit, especially with the pestilence among us. 

The Board of Directors met promptly at 0830 hours this morning.  The C&O K-3 is nearly ready to be put into service, but the test run revealed some mechanical problems that the A&S Maintenance Director, Will Fixer, must attend to this week.  There were some other minor problems, derails due to turn-outs not being correctly thrown, etc.  Some minor adjustments also had to be made to the new ACL ten-wheeler.  That engine also had a close call, which will be further explained by Tom after this report is posted.  We need to hire a bridge tender for the Great Divide.  Bridgett, who watches over the bridge that spans the Sewanee River Lagoon, can only do so much.

Greg deMayo and Curt Webb arrived after 10:00 a.m.  Greg's recently acquited 2-8-0 is out of the paint shop and needs a coal load before being placed in service.  Curt brought some recently acquired Athearn Genisis Pennsy F-3's to test run.   His models have high fans on the roof.  I thought F-2's were the diesels with the high fans.  But then, I can't tell the difference between a GP-7 and a GP-9 and wouldn't know a Uboat if it slipped up on me.  Any engine manufactured much after 1950 can't hold my attention.

We adjourned for lunch at 11:00 and journeyed to Del-Dio's Italian Restaurant.  There were only two customers there beside us so we waived masks and chowed down on salad, pizza, and other goodies.

After lunch we ran the Pennsy F-3's leased by the A&S and gave the ten-wheeler another run - more about that later.

The meeting broke up about 1:30 and will reconvene next weekend. 

This week's story has its origins from the August 1938 Railroad Magazine.  The facts have been changed and the names are different, but so is the story so enjoy it.

                                                                                       BRAKING AT THE ROUNDHOUSE COALING TOWER

    The steam locomotive service facility at Tahope has a coaling tower.  The tower has a loading track that passes under the tower and has a pit below where coal hoppers are emptied.  The coal is lifted from the pit by the coaling tower elevator.  The empties are switched onto an adjacent track for later pick-up. 
    Ralph Clark had been braking for the A&S for over a year since he graduated from Tahope County High School and he had gotten really good at his job, which was to brake cars in and around the steam service facility. 
    Ralph had an admirer, a sweet young thing named Lily Packer, (most of the "wimmins" raised in Tahope are named after flowers or plants) who was a senior at Tahope High that year and whose father owned the grocery store in Tahope.  Lily liked to watch switching operations when Ralph was braking and admire his "skills." 
    There were daily deliveries of coal to the coaling tower.  Shifter Number 71 would back up two or three hoppers down the loading track and release them on the fly.  Ralph would position himself on the lead hopper and ride it to a stop over the coal pit.
    Now, it takes teamwork to successfully accomplish spotting the hoppers over the pit.  The speed of the loco must be just right.  If the hopper is uncoupled from the loco too early, it will stop before making the spot.  If the loco is going too fast when the hopper is uncoupled, it will pass the spot and run into the wheel stops at the end of the loading track.  Engineer Ethan Douglas had made this move numerous times and Ralph would ride atop of the hopper to the spot without having to manually work the hand brake.
    One afternoon, Lily came to watch the action (and to watch Ralph) as the hoppers were being shoved into position under the coaling tower.  Ethan Douglas called in sick that day and was replaced by Steve Carpenter, who had never worked the coaling tower tracks.  Ralph positioned himself on the coal pile of the lead hopper.  Steve backed into the loading track and kicked three hoppers at over 20 mph.  Ralph was relaxing and watching Lily Parker when he realized the cut of hoppers was moving too fast to stop before running into the wheel stops.
    At first, Lily cheered Ralph on as he sat nonchalantly atop the hopper's coal pile, but the cheer turned into a squeal when she realized the hopper was not stopping.  Just as the hopper passed under the coaling tower, Ralph jumped for his life while the hoppers continued on their way and ran into the wheel stops with a loud crash.
    Seeing Ralph was uninjured, Lily ran to his side, grabbed him by the ears, and planted a big, wet kiss on him. 
    Later, in the roundhouse, Steve apologized for misjudging the speed of the cut of hoppers.  Ralph, who was still recovering from Lily's enthusiastic shower of affection, said, "Steve, do you think you could bid for that roundhouse switching job?"

                           
                             No. 71, Steve Carpenter, Engineer                         
                                                       
                           
                                                         Backing up to the pit               


                             
                                                     Ralph on his perch on the lead hopper





jerryrbeach

Judge,


FWIW, early production F3's were almost identical carbodies to the F2's including the chicken wire side panels and high fans.  Late F3's had the stainless side grills and low fans, and looked like F7's.


I think the moral of your story is sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.  Or, maybe unintended consequences that put a smile on your face can pop up where least expected. ;D 
Jerry

GPdemayo

Fun story Bill.....and a good time was had by all.  :)

Great paint job on the St.L&D 2-8-0 Tom.....thanks for all the time and effort you put in on this little gem.  8)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

ACL1504

There are three bridges on the Atlantic and Southern RR. This is the Paul Harvey version of today's story.

It's the A&S policy to loudly announce "The bridge is OUT, or the bridge is IN." when trains are running. This means all trains must STOP! During this time, the Babe came into the train shed and was talking to Greg and Curt. I previously announced, "The bridge is OUT" and then joined in on the conversation.

The Engineer didn't hear "The bridge is out" and continued his run across the Suwannee River Lagoon. He made the normal Toot Toot, to Bridgett on the way to the Great Divide. We all heard a thump and turned to look. The Midlands bridge over the Great Divide was OUT and this is what we all saw.

I really can't tell ya'll what can happen to a brass loco that falls from the track some 38.5 inches to the bottom of the Great Divide.

Tom :-X



"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

jerryrbeach

Tom,


I'm thinking you need a microswitch that cuts power to the last three feet or so of track when the bridge is out.  I'm not a DCC guy but it seems to me like that wouldn't be particularly difficult to install.  I'm just guessing that any engine that takes a dive would be more than a little worse for wear.
Jerry

Zephyrus52246

Great story, Judge.  Lucky save on the loco.  :o   Looks like you need to install a track deadening switch when it's open.  Tougher to do with the "Keep Alives". 


Jeff

PRR Modeler

Great story Bill. It was a lucky save with the steamer.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

GPdemayo

Lesson learned?.....A hung up loco fends off a geezer stroke-out.  ::)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

jbvb

I'll add to Jerry's note about F-3s, there was also a Phase II or 'chicken wire' version.

Regarding the bridge, stopping sections are OK until an engineer is looking the wrong way when operating a new, fancy DCC loco with keep-alive tech.  Then you need a mechanical positive stop.
James

ReadingBob

Sounds like everyone had a good time yesterday in spite of the close call.  Another great story Bill!  :)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

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