december 2009 memphis buff
DESCRIPTION
Official Publication of the Memphis Chapter of the National Railway Historical SocietyTRANSCRIPT
THE MEMPHIS BUFFTHE MEMPHIS BUFFVOLUME 36, ISSUE 12 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 36, ISSUE 12 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY December 2009 December 2009
Photos from the “Recycle Bin“ Photos from the “Recycle Bin“
1860's Midtown Link?1860's Midtown Link? Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
The “General Beauregard”The “General Beauregard”
Memphis Chapter Officers
President – David Chase [email protected] President – Bruce SmedleyNational Director – Bill Strong [email protected] – Treasurer – Thomas Doherty [email protected] – Mike PendergrassPublication Editor – Tom Parker [email protected]
This Month's Meeting
In December we will be having a “Show and Tell” meeting. Everyone is encouraged to bring in an item or two from their personal railroad collection and spend 5-7 minutes talking about them. We will also have an election of officers for 2010. There are several vacancies that need filling, so your attendance is encouraged. Absentees run the risk of being elected.
New look for online Buff
The look of the online of the “Memphis Buff” has changed. Using the website is-suu.com, the “Buff” can now be viewed as an online magazine instead of the PDF format previously used. Access is still via the memphisrails.com website with the User ID “Member” and the password “Buff”(capital “M” and “B”). I anticipate posting future issues even after resigning as the editor.
Cover Photo: I could call this picture “Desperado Waiting for a Train”. A train with two IC SD70's in their original “Deathstar” paint was doubled out in CN's Harrison Yard (pictured at left) . I camped out on the lowline just south of the yard and waited. And waited. I had forgotten my scanner, so I didn't have a clue as to what was going on. After about an hour and with the daylight fading, I packed up and went home. It would have been a nice picture.... Tom Parker Photo
Photos from the “Recycle Bin”By: Tom Parker
In putting together the “Buff” each month there are a lot of false starts. Some photos originally selected for inclusion in the “Buff” don't make it to the final version. Sometimes a planned article doesn't pan out, sometimes a better picture isfound, sometimes the picture simply doesn't fit.Here are some pictures I found on my hard drive that didn't make the cut.
“Powered by a trio of EMD E7 locomotives, Illinois Central train No. 2, the City of New Orleans, speeds through Wickliffe, Kentucky on June 24, 1951.This im-age is from the collection of the photographs of the late Otto Perry.” Where and why I got this image I don't know, but it was in my folder for the December 2007“Buff”.
Edith Barnett and Mary Mayer, September 2, 1979, National Railway Historical Society Annual meeting,Wilmington, DE. (February 2008 “Buff” notice of Edith's death)
Post card showing Mammoth Cave Railroad locomotive Number 3. Its brother, Number 4, was built for the East End Railroad which operated between downtown Memphis and Montgomery Park (now the Fairgrounds)(For the March, 2008, “Buff” article “The Memphis Dummies”)
This is the brick culvert that collapsed beneath the tracks at Central Station. The picture was in the December, 2008 “Buff” file, but I didn't follow up on my idea for an article.
1860's Midtown Link?
The above detail is from a map commissioned by Major Gener-al W.T. Sherman during the Civil War. It shows a rail line linking the Memphis & Charle-ston (bottom) and the Memphis & Ohio (top) located about where Watkins Avenue is today. An 1870 map shows no such track. The question is: Did it ever exist or was Gen. Sherman provided with faulty intelli-gence? The full map is on line at memphisrails.com.
Tom Parker
The "Gulfport" on its way to the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, IL. Picture from the Monticello Railway Museum web site. (For the January, 2009, “Buff" article “The “Panama Limited”, the “Memphis” and the “Gulfport” Pullman Cars”)
The "Hickory Creek" at Washington, DC, October 25, 2008, Photo copyright by Jeff Lubchansky. (For the article “The “Twentieth Century”'s “Hickory Creek”, May 2009 “Buff”)
A Visit to the Tennessee Valley
Railroad Museum
by Tom Parker
On November 21st I had the opportunity to visit the Ten-nessee Valley Railroad Mu-seum. The Museum was originally founded as a Chapter of the NRHS in 1960 and incorpor-ated in 1961. The museum opened to the public in 1971. At the time there were no perman-ent structures, but donations of land and abandoned right of way by the Southern Railway had allowed the museum to construct a yard for storage and repair of equipment and construction of a track through the Missionary Ridge tunnel. At that time the line ended at Tunnel Road because the over-pass had been removed.My brother, Mike, is inter-ested in the Pullman car “Gen-eral Beauregard”, which is un-dergoing restoration at the mu-seum. Mike has been in contact with one of its owners, Bob Ralph, who kindly agreed to let Mike get a close up look at the “General”. Mike invited me to tag along.After locating Bob, we took a tour of the “General”. Bob then invited us to take a ride on the “North Pole Express” to
Grand Junction and back. We rode in TVRM 873, a chair/grill/lounge car built by
ACF for the MP in 1948 on the outbound trip. On the return trip Mike and I were treated to a ride in the cab of the 610.
TVRM Consolidation 610 pulls the "North Pole Limited" into the North Pole station
Leaving its train at the depot, the 610 takes a ride on the turntable in preparation for its return trip to Grand Junction
The engineer drives....
and the fireman stokes the fire.
"Grand Junction" is the main depot. Despite the architecture, it is a modern building and contains the
ticket office, gift shop and restaurant
The abandoned NS right of way included the Missionary Ridge Tunnel
An empty coal train heads for Memphis and beyond on the adjacent NS track
The “General Beauregard”by Tom Parker
As the Illinois Central began to scale back its passenger opera-tions in the 1960's, it began to reduce the size of its passenger car fleet. One of the casualties of the downsizing was the sleeper/ lounge car the “Gener-al Beauregard”. The “General Beauregard” entered serivce in 1942 as part of one of the two sets of stream-lined equipment for the newly dieselized “Panama Limited”. The “General Jackson”was its counterpart in the other set of equipment. Both cars later also saw service on the “City of Miami”. Some of the cars passed through Memphis on the way to their new assignments or sadly, the scrap yard.
At the time, my brother, Mike, was working as a yard clerk at Johnston Yard. One of his du-ties each afternoon was to check the shop tracks prior to them being switched each even-ing. One afternoon he noticed several passenger cars sitting on the tracks outside the shop, among them the “General Beauregard”.The cars wern't locked and
Mike decided to take a tour of the “General”.Fast forward some forty odd years. Retirement has re-kindled Mike's interest in mod-el railroading and rail history. With the help of the internet, Mike began tracking down former Illinois Central passen-ger equipment. Thats how he discovered the “General Beauregard” at the Tennessee
Illinois Central Diagram of "General Beauregard" and "General Jackson"
“General Beauregard"
Valley Railway Museum. A series of e-mails put Mike in touch with Bob Ralph, a co-owner of the “General Beauregard. Bob extended an invitation to come and get a first hand look at his project.We arrived at the museum and were directed to the car. Bob and his partner, Bruce Backus, were doing some spray painting inside the car, so Bob showed us the work underway on the exterior while the air cleared inside.The roof work has been com-pleted and had received it fi-nal coat of paint. Perhaps the biggest job on the body is re-placement of the sills which have rusted away due the gas-kets around the windows leak-ing, allowing water to enter the walls of the car.
Additional water tanks, mod-ern plumbing and air condi-tioning are planned for the un-dercarriage, as well as high speed trucks. The car will be up to Amtrak standards when completed. Hopefully, except for the mechanicals under-
neath, the exterior work will be finished sometime in the spring of 2010 and the car can receive its orange and brown Illinois Central paint.Most of the interior has been gutted to facilitate the repair of the sheet metal and to re-place the original flammable insulation. The original asbes-tos insulation slated for use in the car was appropriated for use in the war effort, an unin-tended benefit when refur-bishing one of these cars.Plans are to restore the interi-or to the original décor, so a lot of the removed material such as orange colored formica wall panels and pink mosaic tile applied to the horseshoe shaped bar will not be reinstalled.After painting the interior
Interior of the "General Beuregard" as built
The "General Beauregard" as found by Bob Ralph. The car had been "cornered" by the previous owner and Bob had to make temporary repairs to the steps and end sill for movement to the TVRM. Bob Ralph Photo
Exterior sheet metal has been cut away, revealing the rusted out side sills. The retractable steps, dam-aged when the car was "cornered", have been replaced.
walls, the insulation and duct-work will be installed in the roof and then the ceiling will go in. Next will be the wall insula-tion and walls. The hope is to to
have the car on the road by 2012.Mike and I are already looking forward to making another trip
to Chattanooga in a few years to see the final product. Dare we dream of some day seeing the restored “Gulfport” and “General Beauregard” bring up the markers on the “City of New Orleans”?
Mercifully, some interior features will not be reinstalled. Bob Ralph Photo
A look down the hall after paint-ing. That's baseboard heating lay-ing on the floor which will be in-stalled along the extrerior wall. Mike Parker photo
Inside the lounge area of the "General Beauregard" From left to right, Bob Ralph, Glenda Parker, Mike Parker and Bruce Backus Tom Parker photo
The group and the "General". Left to right: Glenda Parker, Mike Park-er, Bob Ralph, Tom Parker and Gl-enda Parker. (Yes, they're both Gl-endas) Photo by "Kate"
Pictures? - Bob Ralph is seeking any pictures of the “General” in action. If you have some, let me know and I'll pass the informa-tion along. Tom P.
CABOOSE
“General Beauregard”, Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, Chattanooga, TN.Tom Parker Photo
Meeting Schedule
December 14, 2009
Meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month in the White Station Branch Lib-
rary from 7-9 pm.5094 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN (in front of Clark Tower)
Contact the EditorTom Parker
3012 Wood Thrush DriveMemphis, TN 38134
THE MEMPHIS BUFF welcomes contributions for publication. Copyrighted materials must contain the source. Original documents and photos are preferred for clarity. Enclose a SASE for the return of your materials. Articles sent via the Internet should be in Mi-crosoft Word format. Photos should be JPEG files @ 72 dpi and at least 800x600 size. Consideration for a cover photo would re-quire a much higher resolution. THE MEMPHIS BUFF is a not-for-profit publication for the Memphis Chapter of the NRHS. All cred-ited photos herein are copyright by the photographer and may not be reused without permission.