The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[GPdemayo]

The miscreants finally face the full wrath of a civilized society.....  

[PaulS]

Wonderful Bill !
Justice prevails by both the railroaders and the judge.
Happy holidays and all the best in the coming new year with many more Saturday evening posts    ....
--Paul

[ReadingBob]

Gee, when I built the Trackside Tavern I had no idea it was going to have such a rich and colorful history.    

Great story Bill!  Here's wishing a Merry Christmas to you and yours.   

[Zephyrus52246]

Another great story, Judge.


Jeff

[deemery]

Gee, when I built the Trackside Tavern I had no idea it was going to have such a rich and colorful history.   
...

Did you include the blood on the ceiling?

dave

[Blazeman]

Question for The Judge:

During you bench career, assuming you read these literary treasures over the years, were you inspired to quote any of them when sentencing or otherwise lecturing to the miscreants who were brought your way for justice and adjudication?

[Judge]

Blazeman - I have heard countless judge jokes over the years and, believe me, some of my experiences with criminal defendants made it difficult not to laugh.  The line the Nashville judge said, "just do the best you can" is original with me.  I ought to write a book. 

[deemery]

...  I ought to write a book.

You really should!  Start each chapter with a Judge Joke, and then talk about an episode from the courthouse.

dave

[GPdemayo]

Blazeman - I have heard countless judge jokes over the years and, believe me, some of my experiences with criminal defendants made it difficult not to laugh.  The line the Nashville judge said, "just do the best you can" is original with me.  I ought to write a book.

Hey Bill.....how about including one or two in each Saturday Report.....

[MAP]

Great story Bill!  Always fun following along with the stories on the A&S.

[Judge]

Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report - December 26, 2020

The Board of Directors met for the first time in many weeks.  The meeting started promptly at 8:30 a.m. it was a cold (by Florida standards) winter's day with the temperature in the low 50s, but plenty of sunshine.  MId -60s by noon. 

Much of the business of the meeting was the discussion of the CEO's bout with COVID.  If any of you are still in denial about the existence of this horrible pestilence, just listen to the experience of Tom Langford.  It is difficult to speak of the virus without interjecting politics, but politicians are the ones who are deciding who gets vaccinated and when.  In Florida, the governor decided that the retiree base was more important than the health care workers so he has decreed that us old folks should get vaccinated first.  Somehow I suspect the docs and the hospital workers will figure out a way to work that out.  Anyway, the CEO is back nearly clicking at 100% and his work on the Tahope River Crossing is progressing nicely.  Perhaps that phase of adding scenery to the Tahope peninsula will be completed next week and efforts can be focused on the City of Tahope itself.

When the director's meeting ended, we moved the Pensacola Zephr back to The Bottoms for storeage and assembled a freight train of 23 cars and a caboose, powered by two E8 Southern RR locomotives and ran it through The Midlands.  A loose rail joiner appeared to stall progress so the train proceeded up the Ovalix to Summit and Ucita Yard.  There was a power transfer from the diesels to a C&O K3 2-8-2 and the Mike pulled the 24 car frieght without difficulty on Summit's level track.  Next Saturrday we will test the K3's strenght pulling freight cars up the Ovalix.

No lunch today.  Your reporter promised Cindy he would avoid restaurants until after vaccinations.  So we broke early.

This week's story is one of how the young has to learn when trying to get the best of the old. 

                                                                                                            DRINKING WATER

        There was still plenty of steam on the A&S Railroad in 1950, and it wasn't just pulling freight either. 
   Now one day near about Christmas, 1949, Wayne Shoemaker drew the fireman's job on local number 6, a daily set-out freight powered by one of ACL's beautiful, but aging, Pacifics.  Number 1516, a USRA design, was built by ALCO at Richmond Locomotive Works in 1919, she would meet the scrapper's torch on June 15, 1950.  But today her fire was hot because the hostlers had been at it all night, along with a number of other locos in the Tahope Service Facility Roundhouse.  "Tater" Cartwright, the night Forman, had seen to it that the engine was loaded with coal and water and her running gear was lubed for action.
   The hogger who drew this morning's run was none other than Uncle Henry O'Leary, who had over forty years of railroading and remembered well when 1516 was new. 
   The fireman that day was Wayne Shoemaker, a nice young lad who had fired for Uncle Henry before.  Uncle Henry was easy enough to get along with and he certainly had enough experience to provide instruction to newly-promoted firemen, but Wayne had one problem with Uncle Henry that he had figured out how to solve.
   In steam days, running a locomotive was a hot, sweaty job.  One of the duties of the fireman was to fill the glass jug with drinking water and place it in the wooden ice box that the roundhouse crew filled with ice.  The box was mounted on the coal gate of the tender.  The jug of water was used by all members of the crew by drinking directly from the jug and it didn't matter if the drinker smoked, had a cold, or worse of all, chewed tobacco. 
   Now, Uncle Henry would bite off a chaw now and then during the trip.  When he took a long drink, tobacco juice would run out of the corner of his mouth into the freshwater remaining in the open water jug.  This was revolting to Wayne and he vowed to do something about it.
   On that crisp December morning in 1949, he decided to "forget" to load the water jug onto the engine.  The idea was for Uncle Henry to get the hint that the rest of the crew did not appreciate the mixture of H20 and tobacco juice. 
   Well, old 1516 was pulling out of the Sanlando yard heading for the main when Uncle Henry removed his uppers, which were dripping with tobacco juice, and handed them to Wayne, shouting, "Here boy – my teeth!  Wash them."  Wayne replied, "I'm sorry, Uncle Henry, but I clean fergot to load the water jug for the trip this morning."  "You fergot whut," said Uncle Henry," incredulously?  "I fergot the water jug." 
   With that, Uncle Henry said, "Boy!  I'm hot!  And I sure am thirsty."  Then he dropped the reverser handle forward two notches.  This immediately made the engine work harder.  The exhaust was barking up and out the stack, which required more steam and more coal. 
   Wayne started shoveling more and more. 
   After a few more miles, Uncle Henry shouted across the cab, "Boy!  Am I ever thirsty?"  And once again he shoved the reverser handle a little closer down in the corner. 
   Wayne realized he was in big trouble.  He literally worked his tail off shoveling coal all the way back to Tahope.  By the time they spotted the locomotive over the ash pit, Wayne had learned a valuable lesson and he realized he was no match for Uncle Henry. 
   From then on, whenever Wayne fired for Uncle Henry, he brought his army surplus canteen with him and cooled it down with ice from the wooden box.     

[Dennis Bourey]

Very nicely done Judge....Dennis

[Zephyrus52246]

Another good one, Judge.

Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Good one Bill.....

[ReadingBob]

What's that saying?  Age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm?  In other words don't mess with old folk.