The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

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

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nycjeff

Your Honor, glad to hear you plan on making it back to the railroad next week. Hope your recovery continues without any setbacks.   Jeff
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

Judge

Thank you, Jeff.  Progress is slow, but Cindy says she will get me into the train shed Saturday if she has to hold onto me and walk me to the roundhouse.  I think she wants to get rid of me for a couple of hours.  Quite frankly, I don't blame her.


GPdemayo

Hot diggity dog.....SBG fun & BS coming up soon.  ;D ;D ;D  I'm not sure to who Bob is referring..... ::)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

Judge

Saturday Report - May 1, 2021

Your reporter was unable to attend the gathering at the Atlantic & Southern location yesterday.  Recovering from spinal surgery is a slower process than expected.  Some days you feel like you are making progress.  Other days you feel like you have lost whatever progress you have made.

This week's story is the final installment of the adventures of Stewart Walter, who managed to get hired on as a fireman on the A&S due to his connection with "Tater" Cartwright.  He finally progresses to become an engineer and is one of the most respected employees of the A&S.  We may hear more from him in the future.

                                                                                                MOVE TO THE RIGHT SEAT PART III

   Stewart worked as an engine watchman for a week or two and by and by he was assigned as the fireman for the roundhouse engine facility.  Now, that was certainly not an "over-the-road" assignment but it turned out to be more of a hostler's job than a fireman's position.
   The A&S had just been assigned two new switch engines, a 0-6-0 and an 0-8-0.  Both engines were leased and they were in like-new condition.  The 0-8-0 was assigned as the "yard goat" and the 0-6-0 was assigned to switch at the Sanlando Yard.  Stewart got to run the engines on night shifts because there was a shortage of qualified engineers right after WWII. 
   Stewart proved to be an excellent hostler and switchman and was soon, "Tater" Cartwright, Roundhouse Forman, recommended Stewart to the Road Forman of Engines.  Stewart took his rules test and his physical exam and was pronounced fit for duty as an engineer. 
   His first assignment was an industrial run that required him to make a run up the Ovalix with the 0-6-0 switcher.  The steady grade of 1% proved to be a challenge, especially with a green fireman, and the switcher struggled to push ten boxcars up to Summit.
   About that time, the A&S purchased an ancient 2-6-6-2 to haul pulpwood from Piney Woods to the paper mill in Jacksonville.  The mallet was an oil burner and the roundhouse crew was unfamiliar with that type of engine. 
   Stewart studied everything he could find about oil burners because he assumed the engineer with the lowest seniority would be assigned as the mallet's hogger.
   The mallet needed to be overhauled and the pipe fitters and boilermakers thought oil was so combustible that just piping it into the firebox was sufficient.  Nobody took the pains to make all the air that was drawn into the firebox mix thoroughly with the flame before it entered the flues.
   As luck would have it, Stewart drew the mallet for its first run with a fireman who had never seen an oil-burning engine.  Stewart brought the problem to the attention of the Road Forman of Engines and the next day the burner was adjusted, the firebox was sealed except for the damper, and there was no carbon in the way.  With those adjustments, Number 7 was fit to haul a string of pulpwood cars up the ovalix at about 4mph all the way to Summit.
   Stewart became recognized as a first-class engineer and it seemed like no time before he was assigned to passenger varnish, including the Florida Special.  It was during that time that he met and married Peggy Sue Baker from Tahope.  Peggy Sue gave Stewart four head of young 'uns and they all grew up to be railroaders on the L&N.       


GPdemayo

You were missed yesterday Bill.....hit the therapy as hard as the doctors will let you so that you can get back as soon as possible.  :) Great story!
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

ReadingBob

Quote from: GPdemayo on May 02, 2021, 09:34:36 AM
You were missed yesterday Bill.....hit the therapy as hard as the doctors will let you so that you can get back as soon as possible.  :) Great story!

Ditto that.  You were missed.  Keep working at it.  We hope to see you soon!
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

nycjeff

Your Honor, sorry to hear that you couldn't make the latest get together, but remember that you are in it for the long haul, don't worry about a minor setback.   Jeff
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

Judge

Greg, Bob, Jeff - Thank you for the encouragement.  I plan on making it into the shed Saturday.   My ankle has improved significantly. 

Judge

#1013
Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report - May 16, 2021

My Apologies for the lateness of this report. 

The Board of Directors of the Atlantic & Southern Railroad met a few minutes late at 8:45 a.m. The river scene and the new salvage yard are nearing completion.  "Quality junk" is needed for the salvage yard, but there are plenty of items available for this purpose in numerous boxes stored under the layout.  The next move is to reconfigure the track scheme in the downtown Tahope area to accommodate Bob Butt's wonderful apartment building.  The plan is a good one and will result in the creation of additional space for urban development, a goal that has always been uppermost in the minds of the Tahope City Council.  The cooperation of the railroad was the key to the success of this project.

The Board ajourned at 9:00 a.m. and fired up old Number 7, a Sierra 2-6-6-2 which is owned by the A&S and serves yoman duty hauling pulpwood and pine logs out of Piney Woods destined for distibution to lumber mills (pine logs) or to the St. Joe Paper Mill in Jacksonville (pulpwod). 

We switched  our focus to the Souhern Railroad's beautiful new E7s, which pulled a long mixed freight around and through the Midlands.  Unfortunately, a pesky short has limited the use of the Bottoms and the Ovalix.  Hopefully, the source of the short will be discovered soon and the railroad will be back in full opearation.

This week's story is a version of an old tale that emerged in railroad folklore before WWI in response to railroad management's effort to punish railroaders who participated in the railroad strike that took place in 1894.  Railroad boomers who participated in the strike would ask their superintendent for a "service letter" as an introduction when they decided to "drag up" and move on to another railroad.  Strikers would receive their service letter printed on stationery that had a watermark showing a crane with its head down, a sign not to hire the bearer of the service letter.   This watermark was known to railroaders as the crane with the broken neck.  Anyway, railroaders always come up with a plan on how to avoid management's attempts to keep them unemployed and here is a short version of one such attempt.

                                                                                   The Alternative Story of the Pocatello Night Yard Master

   Back after the turn of the century, railroads were still licking their wounds after the '94 railroad workers strike caused by Eugene Debbs.
   In those days there was plenty of thieving of property belonging to the Atlantic & Southern Railroad.  Engineers and firemen unloaded coal for nearby residents (at a price),  Roundhouse foremen sold kerosene by the barrel to businessmen,  Passenger conductors kept the lion's share of cash fares, freight conductors sold empty citrus boxcars to fruit growers for $10 each, and brakemen shook down all the 'bo money in sight.
   The Superintendent's night yardmaster, Johnny Ray (Bubba) Fisher, Newt Fisher's grandfather, was unable to reap the benefits of the extra money purloined from the A&S.  He recognized that railroads throughout the country had lost most of their personnel records during the strike and he determined to take advantage of it.  Many of the railroaders who went on strike with Debbs were "blackballed" from working for any railroad.  Boomers who were on strike needed a favorable service letter from a class 1 carrier in order to get a job.  The service letter requirement was designed by the railroads to eliminate the entire genus of boomers.
   Bubba decided to provide service letters to any railroader who paid him $5.00.  The letter, written on official Atlantic & Southern stationery, certified that the "bearer" had been the Night Yardmaster at Sanlando with exemplary service.  In no time, thousands of these letters flooded railroad personnel offices. 
   It was a sweet racket while it lasted.  Inevitably, these yardmaster letters were bought by the kind of characters who were literally incapable of switching a carload of perfume out of a train of manure, and so, Sanford Night Yardmaster letters became a synonym for loud-mouthed incompetence wherever railroaders gathered to switch a cut of boxcars.
   And what happened to Bubba Fisher?  He was asked to hit the cinders and find himself another line of work.  As he wandered off of A&S property, he was heard to say, "Well, I almost did something and got away with it, but I got caught.  He caught the local mixed train and returned to the Bottoms to feast on a supper of fried catfish, grits, hushpuppies and corn squeezins.  Easy come, easy go.     

Zephyrus52246

Great story.  Glad to hear you got to visit the A&S again, Judge.


Jeff

GPdemayo

Great story Bill.....not able to visit with y'all yesterday, but I hope to see you next time. :)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

ReadingBob

Love the story!  Glad to hear the Board of Directors of the A&S was able to meet yesterday.  Hope to get down there again for a visit real soon.  ;)
Bob Butts
robertbutts1@att.net

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

Jim Donovan

Great story, I look forward to reading them..

Jim D
Holland & Odessa Railroad

nycjeff

Your Honor, so glad that you have made it back to the train shed, it's great that you are getting around again.   Jeff
Jeff Firestone
Morristown, Arizona
modeling the New York Central in rural Ohio in the late 1940's

S&S RR

Judge


Great story and great to hear that you are back attending the Board of Directors meetings.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

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