The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[GPdemayo]

Good report Bill.....

[Blazeman]

B-L-H didn't last very long.  Wal-Mart occupies a portion of the property.  The distinctive shaped office building remains in that function, space leased to tenants.  Decades ago, Boeing built a wind tunnel on a parcel adjoining Industrial Highway (HUEY and V-Stol testing).

Back in the day, Baldwin, General Steel Castings, Belmont Iron, Westinghouse, Sun Ship, and a Phila Electric generating station fronted on aptly named Industrial Highway running from Chester to the Philadelphia airport.  Reading had their Darby Creek facility and roundhouse along with a rolling bridge.  Quite a lot of railfanning was done going back and forth to grandmom's.

[Judge]

Sorry, no Saturday Report this week.  Stay tuned next week.

[PRR Modeler]

 

[BandOGuy]

Sorry, no Saturday Report this week.  Stay tuned next week.

2020 strikes again.
Be gone damn  pestilence!

[Jim Donovan]

Tom and Bill Judge;

Just caught up on the thread, I truly enjoy the stories, they bring the A&S to life. As for hoping, given time, common sense would strike a woman who picks men like Wormy, well I'm sure it has happened, stranger things have occured in the universe, not many, but some.

And even the good book says, 'The Truth Will Set You Free'. It just does not say when.

Keep the stories coming as the A&S thrives in its glory.

Jim D

[postalkarl]

Hey Judge:

You are quite welcome. You deserve it.

Karl

[Judge]

Saturday Report - October 3, 2020.

The Board of Directors of the A&S RR met this morning at 0830 to discuss the current situation.  Progress on the railroad has been minimal in the past week due to asset liquidation of Jim Miller's Estate.  Jim, as most of you know, passed away recently and the president of the A&S has been selling off assets from Jim's HO collection.  However, the president is P.O.'d at Ebay and claims he will no longer use it beginning October 7.  Changes in policy, mostly in favor of buyers, have finally caused the disconnect. 

We have been speed matching diesel locomotives during the last few Saturdays, but today we opted to run the L&N Sportsman passenger train.  The train was spotted in The Bottoms on the track close to the wall so bending over to see the number board was an inconvenience.  But once the number was determined, those E7A's performed perfectly.  They had been sitting idle for several months and it was good to see that no gremlins had invaded the decoder during that time.  So, up the Ovalix the Sportsman went at speed step 25 and she strutted her stuff all around the Midlands for the rest of the morning.  We had a change of power mid-morning and the diesels were cut off at the Lubritorium in favor of #415, an L&N mountain type designated as L-1. 

We broke for lunch and traveled to Del Dio's for salad.  The session ended after lunch so the directors could watch the Gators playSouth Carolina.

This week's story has its origin in the February 1940 edition of Railroad Magazine.  I am an amateur when it comes to how pony trucks are attached to real locomotives so I cannot swear this tale is true.  But it looked like the author was telling a True Tale of the Rails when I read his version of these events, so here goes

                                                                                                         THE MISSING WHEEL

    Early October in Central Florida is the beginning of fall, if you can call it that.  At least the temperature moderates to highs in the low to mid-'80s and the lower humidity gives working stiffs who make a living pushing freight on the A&S Railroad a little break from the sweltering heat of the summer.
    It was such a day in 1949 when Ethan Douglas, engineer; Wayne Shoemaker, fireman; and Bud Millstone, head shack, were assigned to a freight run from Sanlando up the Ovalix to Summit, hauling a string of hoppers full of coal.  The power drawn for that trip was 1534, a huge 2-6-6-2 Mallet, recently acquired from the C&O.
    Ethan Douglas coupled onto his train and proceeded through Bedford Forrest and began to attack the one-degree grade on the Ovalix at 12 mph.  As the hoppers drew onto the grade, 1534 slowed to a steady 4 mph.  It was a long trip up the Ovalix at that speed and Shoemaker had his hands full working the stoker and the injector to keep up steam.
    As the train came within a mile of the Summit cut-off, the crew heard a tremendous "crack" and the big Mallet came to a complete stop. 
    The crew dropped to earth and inspected the front of the engine.  Wonder of wonders, the front axle had broken slap in two and the wheel on the fireman's side was missing. 
     Douglas sent Millstone back to the crummy to notify the brains of their predicament.  The conductor was already on his way towards the engine.  The entire crew discussed the situation and decided to see if 1534 could limp up the short distance to Summit, cut off the engine, and tie-down there awaiting rescue. 
    Douglas and Shoemaker climbed back into the cab and Douglas cut-off the hoppers and cracked the throttle.  The engine creeped forward at about 2 mph and arrived at the Summit cut-off in about 20 minutes. 
    Douglas contacted the section foreman, Ralph Miller, and explained, "Ralph, we've lost a wheel and I need your speeder to cruise the track down the Ovalix until we find it."  Miller loaded the speeder with a gang of gandy dancers and proceeded down the Ovalix, searching for the missing wheel.  Sure enough, they soon found it off to the side of the mainline.  The gandy dancers loaded the wheel onto the speeder and returned to Summit.  By that time, Will Fixer had summoned his repair crew and they used the big hook to drag 1534 back to the Tahope Roundhouse for repairs. 
    "Good thing we found that wheel," said Douglas, " I was worried the mishap would be chalked up as my fault."  "No problem," said Tater Cartwright, "that axle broke from lack of maintenance." 
    "Waal, she shore looked funny a-struggling up that last mile to the Summit cut-off," said Millstone, "only time I've ever seed a 1-6-6-2 in action." 

[PRR Modeler]

Great story Judge.

[GPdemayo]

Another good one Bill.....

[S&S RR]

Bill


Another great report and fine story. Keep them coming.

[ReadingBob]

Thanks for another great story yer Honor!   

[ACL1504]

LOVED IT!

Tom

[Blazeman]

No disrespect, your honor, but I believe those Gators played South Carolina.

[ACL1504]

No disrespect, your honor, but I believe those Gators played South Carolina.

Larry,

He was a week behind in the report and neglected to change it. They did in fact play SC.

Tom