THE MEMPHIS BUFF VOLUME 35, ISSUE 2 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FEBRUARY 2008

NRHS National Office Transferred Midtown Rail Move On Track?

Member Photos – Bruceton TN

Lakeview Trolley

Memphis Chapter OfficersPresident – David Chase dchase@memphisredbirds.comVice President – Bruce SmedleyNational Director – Bill Strong williambstrong@bellsouth.netSecretary – Oliver Doughtie doughtio@bellsouth.netTreasurer – Thomas Doherty TRDoherty@aol.comLibrarian – Mike PendergrassPublication Editor – Tom Parker tscottparker@gmail.com

January MeetingThe January meeting was called to order by president David Chase. Bill Strong gave a short report on the trip he and several members took on the City of New Orleans to McComb, MS, on December 18th and promised a report for the Buff. Kenny Broomfield presented a slide show on the Meridin Railfest featuring the NS and KCS executive trains. Bruce Smedley discussed three railroads museums that he had visited.

February MeetingCharles Turner, Senior Special Agent with the BNSF, will present “Citizens for Rail Security” This is a program started by the BNSF railway that is based on a community watch comcept and encourages the public to be the “eyes and ears” for suspicious activity on or near railroad property.

Edith BarnetteLong time member of the Memphis Chapter NRHS Edith Barnette died on January 18, 2008 at the age of 89. She served as treasurer for a number of years and was very active in the chapter. She seldom missed a meeting and took part in chapter activities such as railroadianna sales, field trips, and excursions. She loved to go to the NRHS conventions. She didn't drive, so she depended on Amtrak or other members to get here there. This picture of Edith was taken at the NHRS convention in Wilmington in 1979.

BUFF ONLINE: www.buff.illinoiscentral.net User Name:Member Password: Buff (Capital “M” & “B”)

Cover Photo: Lakeview Trolley? This obviously altered picture shows the Riverfront Trolley approaching Beale Street. Tom Parker photo.

NRHS National Office Transfer Announced

The NRHS has contracted with the firm of Fernley & Fernley to provide the services of the NRHS national office. Office functions will be transferred gradually during the month of January, 2008, with Fernley & Fernley to provide all services starting in February. Lynn Burshtin, the current NRHS Office Manager, will continue employment with the Society through the end of February. She will assist with the transition of work to Fernley & Fernley and the relocation of the NRHS libraries into temporary storage.

Fernley & Fernley is the nation’s oldest association management company and provides office services for over 20 non-profit organizations. Under separate agreements, the firm already operates the NRHS membership records system and will begin providing many financial services on January 2, 2008. As previously announced, the NRHS must vacate our present headquarters suite no later than February 29, which requires that NRHS change office operations. After reviewing options and weighing many issues, the NRHS officers concluded that transferring this additional work to our existing management services provider was the best option for the Society.

The NRHS office will remain open for business during this transition. There may, however, be brief interruptions as services are transferred, records are relocated and other contractors are working in the present offices on moving the library materials. Some office procedures will change, and the specifics of those changes will be announced as they are finalized.

As part of this change, the Society’s official mailing address will move to 100 North 20th Street, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1443 on February 1. The present NRHS telephone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses will be retained and transferred to the Fernley & Fernley facilities in mid-January.

Midtown Rail Move On Track?

Recent articles and editorials in the Commercial Appeal have suggested that a move of the NS' intermodal operations from Forest Yard to Pidgeon Industrial Park is all but a done deal. Spock would declare such a move “Illogical” while many others would describe it as “ludicrous”.

The abandond Union Railway right of way is mentioned as a possiblity for a route between South Memphis and the Norfolk Southern's tracks. It is said a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are a few pictures of the abandoned right of way I took a couple of months ago.

Tom Parker

Right of Way Looking North at Bodley Avenue. Property evidently in private hands.

Another grade crossing at Bellvue and more property ownership issues.

While on the on the north side it's completely gone

At McLemore the elevated right of way is being leveled on the south side of the street....

Looking South from Trigg Avenue bridge. A little weed wacking seems in order

Elevated road bed at Marjorie Street The trestle has been removed.

Looking North at Mallory Avenue. Another grade crossing and again apparent private property

Member Photos

This isn't Fallujah or Baghdad, but Bruceton, TN. Carl Lancaster captured these images of the old NC&StL roundhouse at Bructon as well as an armor plated CSXT caboose on November 30, 2007. I had heard of the Illinois Central welding steel plates over the windows of cabooses in yard service around East St Louis, IL to protect the crew from gunfire. Perhaps CSXT 900063 saw similar duty.

In search of the Memphis & LakeviewBy Tom Parker

“The Mississippi Valley route will have another delightful excursion to Lakeview today. The trains will leave at 9 o'clock a.m. And 2 p.m., and return at 7 o'clock p.m. Lakeview is one of the prettiest places in this section of the country, and nothing will be left undone to make these excursions pleasant to all who may attend. Croce Bros. fine string band will furnish music, and dancing will be free to all. To make these excursions popular and and to give all a chance to enjoy them the fare has been placed at the low rate of forty cents for the round trip; children half price.”

Daily Appeal 7/14/1885“The Lake View Traction Company made a formal application to the county court yesterday for a franchise for its line to Clarksdale, and the matter was referred to the railroad committee of the county court, which is to report on it later.The petition of the traction company was for the privilege of locating and maintaining a double track line for the period of thirty-five years, together with the poles and other equipment over the following streets, roads and avenues:Orleans street from Axie avenue to Trigg avenue, on Miller Place from Axie avenue to Kerr avenue, on McMillan avenue to Trigg, on Axie avenue from Lauderdale to Orleans, on Trigg avenue from Orleans to Lauderdale, on Lauderdale from Axie to Kerr, on Prospect avenue from Union Railway to Old Prospect pavilion.The petition asks a right to cross all streets, avenues and roads between Memphis and the state line between Mississippi and Tennessee”

Commercial Appeal 7/27/1906“The Lake View Traction Company inaugurates its first passenger schedule today when the line will be thrown open from New South Memphis to Lakeview, a distance of eleven miles. The present terminus of the upper portion of the line is at the south end of the Suburban-South Memphis car line. Lakeview cars will leave there each hour from 8 o'clock a.m. To 9 o'clock p.m. Daily. Coming this way, the schedules run from 7 o'clock a.m to 8 o'clock p.m.The company has four motor cars and four trailers on the line, and estimates that these will for a time accommodate the passengers. The fare will be 20 cents from New South Memphis, or 25 cents from the city proper, agains 35 cents , the old charge of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley railroad. The schedule from one end of the line to the other call for about 35 minutes, which the company will later shorten.The regular stations between the termini are Brooks avenue, Raines avenue, Horn Lake road and lower Horn Lake road.Officials said that the line would be extended at once to Wall, Miss., and within six months the extension of the line into Memphis proper would be begun. Until both shall have been completed, the company will probably not attempt to do any freight business.

Commercial Appeal 11/27/1910

I have known for years that at one time a trolley ran from Memphis to Lake View, MS. I had heard that Lakeview Road through Whitehaven was originally the route of the trolley line and had seen the overpass on South Third Street which was said to have carried the trolley over the highway. A cousin had told me that a gravel road under the Illinois Central tracks at Prospect Avenue beside Cane Creek was at one time the roadbed of the Lakeview Trolley.

I had all this filed away in my mind as just some more useless knowledge until I was the high bidder on E-bay of a 1916 map of Southwest Shelby County. The first thing I noticed was the:”Lakeview Electric” running southward from where the “Memphis and State Line” crossed Cane Creek.

I decided I would try to document the path of the Lakeview Trolley from its beginning at Prospect Avenue to Lake View Mississippi. I pulled up the TDOT map of Shelby County and overlaid it with the 1916 map.

What I had always heard was true. The trolley line began at Prospect Avenue and lined up with Lakeview Road all the way to just beyond the IC's Grenada District track. At Shelby Drive it lined up with Goodwill Road. It turned west at Hewlett Road then turned southwest paralleling South Third Street all the way to Lakeview, lining up with a couple of present day roads, Tully Road and yet another Lakeview Road.

Where the IC crosses the Lakeview Trolley. This gravel road under the Illinois Central was once the roadbed of the Lake View Traction Company.

Map showing Lakeview Trolley Crossing the IC at Cane Creek and the IC's Grenada District

Next I pulled up the area in Google and traced the route on the aerial map and printed a hard copy. I then grabbed my camera and headed out.

I had already had a picture of the bridge at Prospect, so I headed to the North end of Lakeview Road in the Bellbrook Industrial Park on Brooks Road. Lakeview Road was extended north of Brooks Road when the industrial park was built in 1974. As expected, I

didn't find anything in this area. There was nothing north of the industrial park except Interstate 55 and the Nonconnah Creek bottoms.

The right of way between Nonconnah Creek and Brooks Road was deeded to the Lake View Traction Company by Napolean Hill on August 24, 1908, with the stipulation that “said Traction Company shall have its line on said strip, and have cars in actual operation on said line between Memphis and Lake View, MS within 2 years”. Presumably, an extension was granted as service wasn't inagurated until November of 1910. I then headed south on Lakeview Road, retracing the route of the Lake View Traction Company's line.

Most subdivisions along Lakeview Road were laid out when the trolley was in operation. The South Haven Heights Subdivision's original plat dated 1927 shows “Lakeview Boulevard” running alongside the trolley line between Brooks Road and McCorkle (now Graves) Road on the west side of the right of way. A corrected plat dated 1937 no longer shows the trolley line and shows the former right of way of Lakeview Blvd being added to the adjacent lots. Appropriately named Interburban Heights Subdivision lies just to the south of South Haven Heights and its plat shows the trolley line going over the Illinois Central's Grenada District line.

When I was a teenager in Whitehaven the bridge over the IC's track was a wooden trestle type bridge. It has since been replaced by a concrete bridge

For the about the next mile and a half any trace of the trolley line has been obliterated by development.

Looking North from Bellbrook Industrial Park. Interstate 55 is in the background

I traced out the route on a Google Map

Interburban Heights lies just south of South Haven Heights on Lakeview Road and was laid out in 1910. Its Plat shows the trolley going over the Illinois Central's Grenada District track. Graves Road is shown running along the northwest side of the trolley line. The plat is signed by W.E. Graves, indicating where the road got its name.

Original 1927 Plat of South Haven Heights Subdivision shows Lake View Boulevard alongside trolley right of way. Revised 1937 Plat shows the road in place of the trolley line and the land formerly reserved for the road being added to adjacent lots.

Just east of the intesection of Horn Lake and Shelby Drive the roadbed of the Lake View Traction Company re-emerges as Goodwill Road. It extends in a north eastern direction for a distance of about 2000 feet although only about the first 1000 feet of the roadway is paved.

On the other side Of Shelby Drive the right of way cuts across the corner of the

intersection with Horn Lake Road and then becomes Hewlett Road on the other side of Horn Lake. This area west of Horn Lake Road was developed in 1910 as the Acklena Subdivision. The plat of this development shows the trolley line down what is now Hewlett Road. A later plat of the land surrounding the Acklena Subdivision shows the

The right of way re-emerges at Shelby Drive as Goodwill Road. About 1000 feet of the right of way is unpaved and exists only as a path through

the woods.

Lakeview Road bridge over the Illinois Central track

Odd intersection created by trolley line. Former trolley line Lakeview Road (diagonal), Craft (left to right). Orleans (bottom) and Graves

(upper center)

trolley line turning southwest about 700 feet west of its intersection with what is now South Haven Road.

The trolley line right of way becomes Tully Road just beyond where it made the turn to the southwest. It crosses Weaver Road (Lower Horn Lake Road on the plat above) and extends all the way to Holmes Road. Northeast of Weaver Road it appears to have become private property as there is a gate across the road while to the southwest it is a narrow road strewn with used tires and trash.

Top: Acklena Subdivision plat in 1910 shows trolley running along present Hewlett Road.Bottom: Plat of same area in 1920 shows trolley turning to southwest beyond present South Haven Road.

Another Lakeview Road extends south of Holmes Road where Holmes intersects with Tully. At first I thought that this other Lakeview Road was again the old roadbed. It doesn't align with Tully very well and a little investigation showed that the trolley line actually ran between Lakeview and Acklen Roads south of Holmes. A 1934 plat shows that what is now Lakeview Road was once named Old Horn Lake. Acklen Road on the east side

of the R.O.W. suggests a connection with this subdivision and the Acklena Subdivision a little northwest of here. This last piece of identifiable roadbed is now a turnip green patch.

The Lake View Traction line continued in a southwesterly direction, crossing the Tennessee-Mississippi state line and ending at Lake View Ms. Before Highway 61 was widened a number of years ago there was a wooden trestle crossing the highway near its present intersection with State Line Road. I had always thought that this trestle carried the trolley over the highway, but have since heard that the opposite might be true, that in fact that Old Highway 61 went over the trolley line at that point. Topographical evidence of the trolley lines route ends a little north of this location, so its possible that either is true.

Looking North at location of trestle over Highway 61 before the highway was widened.

Looking south at Holmes Road. Acklen Road on left, Lakeview Road on right, trolley line right of

way between the two roads, now planted with turnip greens..

Lakeview Road was Old Horn Lake Road in 1934. Trolley R.O.W was between Old Horn Lake

and Acklen Rds.

Former Lakeview Traction R.O.W, Tully Road northeast of Weaver Road. Note gate and "No

Trespassing" sign.

As early as 1885 Lake View Mississippi was a destination for Memphians in search of fun and entertainment. Lake View featured a 50 room hotel owned by a Captian A. P. Montana, an aretisian well, a railroad station with a full time station agent who lived on the second floor of the station and five dance halls.

The hotel was located to the west of the Y&MV tracks facing the lake. Adjacent to the hotel and built out over the water was a large general store with a dance hall overlooking the lake. At ground level on the lake bank, row boats were offered for rent. There was a sand beach on the north end of the lake.

In June of 1886 Louis Fritz opened “Horn Lake Park” at Lake View. The amusement park featured concrete walks, a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, ice cream parlor and a spacious theater complete with an orchestra pit and stage for vaudeville acts and theater productions.

Louis Fritz also operated Fritz Fisheries, a commercial fishing operation in both North Horn Lake and South Horn Lake. Large seine nets were used to catch buffalo, carp and catfish, which were shipped to Memphis and other markets.

Somewhat of a mystery exists in regards to the trolley and Lake View, Mississippi. The announcement in the June, 1886, Commercial Appeal proclaiming the opening of the “Louis Fritz Horn Lake Park” states, “Memphis may reach the resort via either the inter-urban line or the Y&MV Railroad.”

In an account in the Memphis Press Scimitar, Wayne Garrett recalls visiting the park at the age of seven. “I used to go with my parents to Central Station at Main and Calhoun and board a trolly car. It ran all the way to Lake View, Mississippi at the break neck speed of of 30 to 35 mph. It only made one stop along the way and the fare was 75 cents roundtrip, kids 25 cents. I think it only ran three times a day

and the line was built by someone who visualized Lake View as a resort area for Memphians in those days.

“I remember several hot summer Sundays, about 1 P.M., when we would board the car and would be pulled from Central Station by a steam engine to somewhere around Third and Mallory, then be switched to a trolley line that ran to Lake View. The car was was open and I would sit on the front seat behind the motorman.”

“At Lake View there was a lage building called “Fritz Place”. It had everything. I remember people eating, drinking, smoking, dancing, gambling, fishing, but my best recollection is the good food, boats, swimming,and the playground.”

The above description, as well as the the mention of an “inter-urban line” in 1886, does not agree with the Lake View Traction Company line herein described. It suggests that there was a second, earlier trolley line to Lake View. That may be a story for another time.

In any case, The Lake View Traction Company ran its first trolley to Lake View in 1910. On January 23,1912, the company went into receivership and on October 16, 1912 was purchased by the Memphis Interburban Company which later became the Memphis and Lakeview Railway, a subsidiary of the Memphis Street Railway Company. Service was finally abandoned in 1928.

The Lake View Traction Company never constructed lines north of its terminal on Prospect Avenue and never extended its lines south of Lake View and quite probably never hauled any freight. More than likely it was killed by better roads and the automoble which allowed peolple access to other places that railroads and interburbans did not reach.

CABOOSE

The same caboose in Carl Lancaster's Bruceton photo is shown here under happier circumstances. This is a photo by G. Gerard of CSXT 900063 on the rear of an empty wet rock train at Achan, FL on June 1, 2002. Photo from www.rrpicturearchives.net

Meeting Schedule

February 11, 2008March 10, 2008April 14, 2008May 12, 2008June 9, 2008

Meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month in the White Station Branch Library from 7-9 pm.

5094 Poplar AvenueMemphis, TN (in front of Clark Tower)

Contact the EditorTom Parker

3012 Wood Thrush DriveMemphis, TN 38134

tscottparker@gmail.com

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 Microsoft Word format. Photos should be JPEG files @ 72 dpi and at least 800x600 size. Consideration for a cover photo would require a much higher resolution. THE MEMPHIS BUFF is a not-for-profit publication for the Memphis Chapter of the NRHS. All credited photos herein are copyright by the photographer and may not be reused without permission.