The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[Judge]

Thank all of you for taking the time to respond to last Saturday's story.  I appreciate the comments.

[Judge]

There will be no meeting of the A&S Board of Directors tomorrow, but there will be a story.  Try connecting around 3:00 p.m.

[Jerry]

We will all be waiting for nother story Bill.

Jerry

[Judge]

Saturday Report in progress.

[Judge]

 This week's Saturday Report will be delayed due to operator error and inability to manage photographs.  Hopefully, the problem will be solved by tomorrow morning.

[Judge]

Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report 10-19-25
No board meeting this week.

About ten years ago, Tom Langford, Bob Butts and I drove to Scranton, PA, for a train show.  On the way, we stopped in Maryland and called on Howard Zane.  He had an HO scale model of a heavy USRA 2-10-2 to which he had attached a Vanderbilt tender and decorated it for the ACL.  I bought it from him and we had WOW Sound installed.  Unfortunately, the plastic tube connecting the motor to the gearbox was a mite too big and it would cause the shaft to slip when the engine got warm.  Well, the engine sat on the shelf for about a decade until I recently found some tubing that was the right size.  We had TCS upgrade the decoder to the newest version that includes "Chuffinity." 

In 1925, the ACL ordered ten 2-10-2's from Baldwin Locomotive Works.  The engines were basically of the USRA Heavy design, but they were somewhat heavier, they had 210 psi steam pressure instead of 190 psi and had tractive effort of 74,000 lbs.  They were the most powerful engines the Coast Line ever had.

I ran across a water color painting of one of these engines on line and it is attached.

Tom has recently gone into the movie business and he made a video featuring the 2-10-2.  I have attached the link for your pleasure.  I am impressed with the video, especially because it is a "first effort."  We haven't decided on a name for the Atlantic & Southern Movie Production Company, but I am sure we will come up with something. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJVldRDVex4

Today's story continues to serve as an introduction to some of the characters who live and work in Tahope County, Florida, which, as you know, is a fictitious county located somewhere in a Central Florida Swamp.

Today we will become acquainted with farmer Patrick Perkins and his kin.

Perkins farm is located South of Piney Woods and across the river on the East side of the Atlantic & Southern Railroad.  Just before the war started in 1914, the A&S bought the right to run a cut through Perkins Farm for the expansion of railroad services to that part of the area.  The railroad built a wooden bridge across the new rail line so Farmer Perkins could get to his cattle on the other side of the cut.

Farmer Perkins acquired the farm from his father, Percey Perkins, who bought the farm in 1905 before the A&S made its first expansion.  Grandpa Perkins still lives on the farm with the family.  He supervises the harvest of oranges from the Perkins' orange grove every November-December, depending on when the first "cold snap" comes through and ripens the fruit.

Farmer Perkins is married to Paula Dean Perkins, who is famous for her contributions to the annual cooking contest at the Tahope Baptist Church each fall.  She likes to serve "good old Florida Cracker Food, such as grits, swamp cabbage, fried soft shell crabs, turtle stew, and gator tail, which tastes "just like chickin'.  Local wild duck, quail, and venison ar also popular on the menue.  (Paula makes sure the buckshot pellets are removed before serving.)

The swamp cabbage comes from Florida's cabbage palms, which have an edible heart that can be harvested, chopped and fried or stewed with bacon, onions, and almost any other vegetable.  "Plain folks" in Tahope County have grown up on swamp cabbage and other delicacies, including catfish, shrimp, and blue crabs.

The Perkins have three children: Peter Perkins is age 16, Perry Perkins is age 16, and Patricia Perkins is age 12.  Patricia is called "Fatty Patty" by all who know her.

Pete and Perry "help out" with the chores on the farm.  They arise before sunup every day and put in a couple of hours before breakfast, which is served at 7:00 a.m.  Breakfast consists of orange juice, eggs, bacon, pork sausage, grits, and biscuits.  Sometimes fried catfish is substituted for the sausage.  Pete picks the oranges from the grove and Perry squeezes the juice.

Fatty Patty is of the age when most young girls become a discipline problem.  She is supposed to help her mother with the cooking and cleaning but she has become extremely lazy and has to be "spoken to."  She wines a lot.  (The photo shows Fatty Patty sitting on her lazy patootie at the edge of the front porch, while being scolded by her Grandpa for not bringing the laundry in from the clothesline before the afternoon ACL freight stormed by spewing boiler water and coal soot all over creation.  Farmer Perkins has had enough of the squabble and is sitting on the other side of the porch.

There are more chores in store when the children get home from school.  Fatty Patty has to help Paula fix "suppa" by shelling peas, shucking corn, or going to the garden to pick okra and tomatoes to be served over rice.  She does these chores under great protest.  - "Aw, ma, do I have to?"  Sometimes she loses her privilege to play her 78 rpm records on her victrola when she misbehaves.

[Jerry]

Bill I se your doing the pictures perfectly.

What a great story to get us all back in the swing of things!!! 
Just have to love the Perkins family.

Jerry

[KentuckySouthern]

  

[Rick]

Lots of alliteration in the Perkins house.

[PRR Modeler]

Great story Bill.

[Judge]

Thank all of you for your kind comments. 

Rick - The Perkins family members are all fans of Edgar Allen Poe, forevermore.

[ReadingBob]

Great update, Bill!  

[elwoodblues]

Another great story Bill.

[friscomike]

Howdy Bill,

Thanks for the insight into a family in Tahope.  I liked the bit about the ACL freight, steam, water, and ash on the clothes. 

Have fun,
mike

[Judge]

ATLANTIC & SOUTHERN SATURDAY REPORT 10-25-25

The Board of Directors met at 0830 hours.  The main topic was the substantial number of new palm trees recently planted in the Midlands near Sanlando.  These palms really give the area a Florida feel. 

After the Palm inspection, we ran 2016, the 2-10-2 that was featured in the video attached to this report last week.  Then we coupled 1516, a USRA Pacific to a string of mixed freight and opened her up to speed step 50.  "Chuffinity" is a great improvement over regular TCS WOW Sound.  I am going to contact TCS next week and try to get some information about how to better set the sound options.  We have been pretty successful playing with the new system but we need some advice on how to get the most out of it.  You would think that TCS would realize that senior railroaders prefer to learn by reading manuals instead of doing whatever 16 year-olds do.

Lunch at Del Dio's and we take a week off so Tom can drivee up I-95 to South Carolina to visit two of his sisters. 

This week's story is a rerun of one of my favorites.  If you've heard it before, hear it again.  I am continuing to introduce some of the people who make the Atlantic & Southern Railroad make it what it is.  Today we meet some of the people who maintain the railroad, most of whom are Irish imports who have escaped New Youk, Boston, or Chicago because of the winters there.  Some of them are boomers, while others have gotten Florida sand in their shoes and have decided to stick around.

Michael O'Toole was promoted to Chief Civil Engineer in 1950.  He was slowly getting into his new job.  O'Toole sent his buddy, a big Irishman named Malone, to be the boss of the track maintenance section in the Tahope District. 

The events that took place on Malone's first day on the job are related here as told by one of the Irish section workers, Brian O'Sullivan, in his own words. 

"Malone was a fine man.  Being Irish, he liked his whiskey, but he never did ask the section to buy him none.  That summer, he hired a fella named Short Stack to be the jack man on the track.  We were removing abandoned rails at the north end of the Midlands and it was one hot day - tempertures in the high 90s.  When noon came, we got our dinner pails, and as we ware all used to the hot sun, we sat right down on the track to eat our dinners.  Malone took his coat and laid it right down on the track to sit on to keep the rail from burning him, as the sun had made the track as hot as a cooking stove.  When he throwed his coat down it landed on a rail joint, which was open about an inch, maybe more.

That morning, Short Stack had broken the handle on his spike mall and he got to fixin' it while we ate lunch so he would have it when we started back to werk.  He got he new handle in place and needed to test it out so he gave a good wack to the end of the rail where Malone was sitting.  He never thought the blow would cause the joint to close, but that joint went together with a bang and caught the flesh of Malone's hind parts and took out a slug as big as fifty cents.  We had to pull him off that joint and he hollered bludy murder and every other thing he could holler. 

WE halled him off into Tahope to the A&S Doctor, Minnie Staysic, and he had a bad time with it.  He showed it to me after it healed up and you would never think it would make a scar as bad as it did. 

Short Stack visited Malone in the hospital and he made his peace with him.  Malone knew he didn't man to do it so he recommended he be promoted to brakeman so he wouldn't have to use hand tools at werk, except a club. 

Short Stack took a few days off in The Bottoms before he went to braking.  Malone was promoted to superintendent on the Jacksonville district.



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