The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[GPdemayo]

Greg - People shouldn't be blamed for what they can't help.

I like the wisdom in your words.....but I don't think that defense would work in court. 

Ignorance of the Laws...........

Jim

After 200+ years of bureaucrats and lawyers, at the local, state and federal levels, pumping out rules and regulations, I can't see that old notion working Jim. 

[Judge]

Atlantic &Southern Saturday Report March 4, 2019  (Partial report)

     The management & staff of the Atlantic & Southern Railroad met briefly at 8:30 a.m. this morning.  The discussion centered on the design of the main freight yard that will be constructed at the Summit.  (For new readers, the A&S has three levels which are referred to as the Bottoms, the Midlands, and the Summit.  These levels are reached by travel up and down on an "ovalix" that makes ten revolutions of twenty-six feet each and rising a consistent grade of one degree.)
    There was also a discussion about signaling at the Summit level.  A semaphore will be installed near the throat of the passenger car lead to Union Station.  The CEO demonstrated the new double target signal recently installed on the west side. 
    The initial effort to power the railroad came up short.  A pesky intermittent problem seemed to resolve itself, but bears further investigation.
     A Seaboard GP7 pushed a cut of freight cars around the 50+ inch radius curve leading to Union Station.  Then it traveled down the ovalix to the Bottoms where it was spotted in the staging yard.  It is a pleasure to watch such smooth, graceful operation.   
    Curt Webb arrived about 10:00 a.m. and sat on the right side of the cab of a long coal drag as it worked its way slowly all the way from the Bottoms to the Summit.
Then we all went to lunch at Smokey Bones and called it a day.

       There is more to this report.  However, there is something wrong with the Forum program and I cannot attach photos.  I checked with Tom (ACL1504) and we fiddled with the problem for about 30 minutes with no results.  I have notified the administrator.  I'll try again tomorrow morning and if the photos can't be attached, I'll go without them.  Try back around 11:00 a.m.

       Sorry about that!

       The Judge

   

[S&S RR]

Great report Judge! You guys sure seem to be having fun. I'm looking forward to your pictures.

[EricQuebec]

Objection your honor. It appears that this report is falsified because backdated 2 days. How can we relate facts that have not yet occurred?
Eric

[PaulS]

Good evening Bill (Judge),
Your 'Saturday Report' is now somewhat akin to a weekly radio show.  Something to look forward to all week, very entertaining and not to be missed as we hear more about the comings and goings of the cast of characters that made up the A&S during a bygone era.
I (like many others here) look so forward to your weekly missives.
Just wanted you to know and please keep at it,
All the best to you, Tom and the entire A&S Crew,
Sincerely,
--Paul
newly of Marshfield, MA

[Judge]

Eric - Picky, picky, picky. We don't worry about little things like accuracy on the A&S.  Ignoring it makes the whimsy more whimsical.   

[Judge]

The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report for March 2, 2019 (continued)

I have added the pics. 

Recently, your reporter began to introduce the readers to some of the inhabitants of Tahope County who live in the Midlands.  Sweaty Betty and her diner were described in detail.  Introductions will continue over the next few weeks, and perhaps a tale or two will be told about the characters you have previously met.  Today we meander down the mainline from Sweaty Betty's, passing Sanlando Station, to Eaton's Curve.

                                                                                                The Inhabitants of Eaton's Curve

Perhaps you have heard the name "Florida Cracker." The name comes from the 1880's when Florida's version of cowpokes lived in the Central Florida area.  The sound their whips made when they herded cattle was a "crack;" hence the name.  Many of their ancestors live in Tahope.  They drive pick-up trucks with rifle racks in the back window and hunt alligators, deer and ducks.    They have Confederate Flag license plates on the front of their trucks.



There are two "cracker shacks"on Eaton's curve.  These shacks have been in place for many years and are in need of indoor plumbing and general maintenance.  There is a small cornfield located adjacent to the lot on which the shacks are located.  A good bit of the corn finds its way to Piney Woods where "idle folk" have a still and make mighty good corn squeezins. The residents of Eaton's Curve have "tied in" to electric power provided by the Tahope Power Co.  The power company does not charge them for electrical usage because they are not listed as customers.

 

Most "working folks" in Tahope County are related to each other some way or another.  Their family trees have very few branches.  Sweaty Betty has a sister named Tallula who lives with her common law husband, Luke, in one of the Cracker Shacks located on Eaton's Curve.  Luke, makes a living harvesting blue crabs from his crab traps on the St. Johns River.  The crab traps sit on the river bottom with a "float" attached to mark their location.  The traps are baited with chicken necks Luke gets from Farmer Perkins in exchange for a share of the crabs.  Florida is the only state in the union that makes it a felony to "molest a crab trap," so Luke guards his traps with a shotgun from a flat-bottomed boat to ward off would-be crab molesters.
 
Tallula spends her days mostly cleaning their shack and doing laundry, which she takes in from neighbors to supplement the family income.  Her washing machine is on the front porch and the clothes line is located behind the house.  Coal dust from passing steam locomotives give her "whites" a distinctive grey color.
Luke and Tallula have a son named Newton Ray Lee, but his friends call him Newt.

Newt is tall, strong, and surprisingly verbal.  He tried to join the navy during the War, but was turned down when he flunked the psychological test.  (He has a pathological fear of accomplishment.)  He is pushing 30 years of age and has never had a job that lasted more than a week or two.

Vergil Turner and his wife, Daisey, live in the other shack on Eaton's curve.  (Daisey's kin tend to name all their wimmin young'uns after flowers or plants.)  Vergil is Luke's half-brother.  They have a son named Donny, but his friends call him Short Stack.  Short Stack is a few years younger than his cousin, Newt.  When Daisey, who is blond, thought she might be pregnant with Short Stack, she went to the Tahope family practitioner, Dr. Minnie Staysic, to find out.  After Dr. Staysic confirmed Daisey's condition, she asked her if she had any questions.  Her only question was "Is it mine?" Short Stack inherited his mother's intelligence.

Short Stack helps Luke harvest crabs sometimes and other times he rides in the truck with Vergil down to the Sanlando Depot to help him clean the place up.  Short Stack gets $.87 an hour for his labor, which he likes to spend at the pool hall in Tahope.

Recently, Newt and Short Stack "went to railroading."  They bummed around Florida looking for odd jobs in railroad yards and accumulating minor criminal charges.
 
Disappointed in their career advancement, they have abandoned all full-time employment and have "taken up as homeless vagabonds" in the Bottoms of the A& S Railroad, where they subsist on odd jobs, petty thefts and the fish and other critters they can catch.  They sleep in a lean-to covered with Palmetto fronds.  They keep a fire going in front of the lean-to, with a pot of hot Mulligan stew simmering from dawn until late in the evening.

The vittles are shared with other vagabonds, hobos, and bums who pass through the Bottoms, hoping to nail a ride on a "Pullman Box Car" to parts elsewhere.  The Mulligan stew is "help yourself," provided each hungry traveler contributes something to the pot or shares a bottle of shine from Piney Woods to take the edge off.

Short Stack is in charge of "obtaining" the ingredients for the Mulligan stew when other drifters are not about.  He gets fish, crabs, and turtles from the Tahope and St. Johns Rivers and traps small gators.  The turtles and gator tails dress nicely for the stew and the fish are fried over the fire. (Gator tails taste "just like chickin.")  The crabs are boiled in river water.  Short Stack's Aunt Betty occasionally gives him one of her pies to take back with him for after dinner.

All-in-all, life is good for Newt and Short Stack, at least for now.  More later on their adventures.

[PRR Modeler]

Great story Bill.

[GPdemayo]

Another good one Bill.....

[jimmillho]

Love the story Bill.

Jim

[Judge]

Paul, Jim, Curt, Greg, et al.  - Thanks for the kind remarks.  I enjoy doing the Saturday Report.  It is a challenge to find material, but so far no problem.  When I run out of ideas I will consult the Trains app on my computer.  It has many years of Trains magazines and I'm sure I will find stories in them that apply to the A&S.

[Oldguy]

All good stories.  They even sound plausible.  Gnat and I can relate to most of them as both of us live in Hillbilly country.

[Judge]

GOOD NEWS!  THE REPAIRS(?) HAVE BEEN MADE AND THE PICS HAVE BEEN INSERTED INTO THE SATURDAY REPORT.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

The Judge

[Judge]

The Saturday Session of the A&S started promptly at 0820 with a discussion about the plans for the main freight yard, which will be located on the east side of the Summit.  The trick is to keep it simple and yet keep it functional.  Plans are not settled but concepts are formulating.
    The first move was to return the Sharks and their coal drag from the Summit to the Bottoms.  This occurred without a hitch due to the excellent design of the Ovalix and the meticulous track-work laid out by the A&S gandy-dancers. 
     Next a POL train composed of tank cars was brought from the Bottoms to the Summit.  It was powered by two ACL GP7's and made the trip without incident. 
      An express reefer freight was scheduled after the POL train, powered by an A-B-A brace of SAL F3's.  Lack of maintenance was the apparent cause of the trailing A unit to fail to respond to the throttle.  We have experienced decoder failure with some of our older TCS WOW decoders and the decoder in this unit was one of our older ones.  It seems they fail while they are in storage for a time.  This unit had not been run in several months.  The good news it that TCS replaces the defective decoders without charge and usually includes an upgrade.  We have not had any problems with replacement decoders.
    The remaining working F3A unit (the B unit is a dummy) powered the reefer consist without difficulty but couldn't make it up the 1% grade on the Ovalix without help, which was provided by an SAL GP7.
   Lunch was at Smokey Bones, as usual.
    After lunch we scheduled a steam powered passenger train, composed of heavy weights and powered by an ACL P5A Pacific.
   No meeting scheduled for next Saturday.

   Today's story has a smatter of truth to it in that it vaguely resembles one of the many murder cases I tried while I was on the bench.  Barlow's Bar-B- Que is a hotspot in Tahope and provides full Saturday night service with food, drink, dancing, pool, and pin ball.  Sometimes the locals get a little rowdy and this story takes place on a Saturday night after our heroes have had a hard week cutting timber in Piney Woods.                                                                               

                                                                                     THE BARLOW'S BAR-B-Q SHOOT-OUT

March is sometimes quite balmy in Central Florida and so it was in 1950.  The oak leaves were still falling, but it was not yet Spring, so it was too early for pollen.  With the humidity over 90% in the evening, it was not unusual for local Tahope residents to take to Barlow's Bar-B-Q for a few "cool ones" and some of Bob Butt's famous ribs. The Super Saber sauce is so hot it makes your forehead sweat and your ears turn red.
    On this particular evening, Bruce Bonebreaker and Sam Savage, both of whom worked timber in Piney Woods, commenced to drinking about dusk and decided to try a game of pinball for a quarter a game.  The more they played, the more they drank and the more they drank the louder they got, until a crowd gathered, causing quite a disturbance. 
   Bruce allowed that Sam had cheated by lifting the pinball machine off of the floor to his advantage, and Sam called Bruce a "no good, lying so and so," or maybe something worse. The argument escalated until one or the other of them threw the first beer bottle.  The fight was on and some of the supporters for each belligerent joined the fracas. 
   The owner calmly suggested the fight should be moved outside by displaying his 12-gage shot gun, so the crowd spilled out into the parking lot. 
   There the fisticuffs turned into a brawl.  Bruce grabbed a 2x4 and swung it towards Sam.  Sam pulled his deer skinnin' knife and commenced to carve on Bruce's mid-section.  At that point, Bruce pulled out his pistol and fired it point blank at Sam.  The bullet made a loud crack as it hit its target between the eyes.  Sam fell to the dirt with a thud.
   About the time the fatal shot was fired, the Tahope Police arrived on the scene.  Upon being advised of the situation and upon viewing the corpse, Officer Poovey decided to arrest the survivor for the Murder of Sam Savage.
         
         The top photo shows the overall crime scene. (Please note that the yellow coupe, driven by one of our subjects, ran through the parking lot fence.) The bottom photo is a close-up of Officer Poovey's arrest of Bruce for Sam's murder. 

           

           


                 
   Now Bruce did not intend to take this incident laying down, so he hired the only criminal defense lawyer in the City of Tahope, Marvin Bello, who immediately mounted an argument for self-defense. 
   The trial was scheduled a few weeks after the arrest and the events described above were placed before the all-male jury.  The coroner testified that Sam died as a result of a gunshot wound to his brain, which he said was somewhat smaller than the average.  The presiding Circuit Judge, Honorable Elvin P. Thomas, had been on the bench since 1918 and it was not his first murder trial.  At the judge's direction, Brass spittoons were strategically placed in the jury box and at the bench.  Judge Thomas always had a chaw of tobacco and he could make a spittoon ring with every shot. 
   When the time came, Judge Thomas instructed the jury as follows:

   "Now, gentlemen, afore y'all convict the defendant of this here murder, you first have to decide if the decedent deserved to be kilt." 

A Not Guilty verdict was soon returned, to the loud approval of the citizens present.
   The crowd adjourned and accompanied Bruce and Marvin Bello to the bar located in downtown Tahope, where they celebrated the victory without further incident.  And Judge Thomas took the A&S local mixed train back home to Sanlando, while sipping bourbon and playing poker with the mayor and other local politicians on the way.
   

[BandOGuy]

Ahhh,
Southern justice.