Well, Mark, your asking about a papermill road threw me until the last clue. I at last thought of the A&StAB, which with, the CG, had operated that line (I wish I had been able to take it).
In the fifties, there were still many heavyweight sleeper lines in operation, and by the mid-sixties, only one was left; it, too, was a 10-1-2 line.
This line ran interstate, overnight, between a metropolis and a much smaller city. Except for the last forty miles, it ran in a name train. Name the two end points, the name train, and, for extra credit, its motive power into the fifties for the last forty miles.
OK, WAG time: The sleeper was on the train THE BLACK HAWK, Chicago to Iowa Falls. It was IC from Chicago to Waterloo, IA.
I have no idea about the motive power on the last leg (the un-named train from Waterloo to Iowa Falls) but from the way youâve phrased it, I would guess it was a steam engine. - a.s.
Sorry, Al, you have to roll your own cigar this time. The car ran on just one road. The Black Hawk was the Qâs overnight train between your town and the Twin Cities. Were you thinking of the Hawkeye? No, it was not a steam engine.
The Green Bay to Chicago sleeper which ran in the CNWâs Ashland Ltd. This is just a guess however. My wife and I rode this car from Appleton to Chicago in 1960 or 61 but I donât know if it was still running by the mid sixties,
Did my keyboard ever throw you all off! I meant to write intrastate, but somewhere between my brain and the page, it was transmuted, and I did not catch the error before posting. Iâm sorry. Perhaps the right description will make it easier. Iâll even throw in another clueâDave Morgan wrote about riding this line.
Iâm going to have to give up for the time being. I donât have a mid 60âs OG so Iâd be just guessing, Perhaps with the aid of another hint or two Iâll be able to narrow it down and give an intelligent answer.
I am guessing the sleeper operated by the NP between Seattle and Walla Walla, Wa. Operated in the Mainstreeter between Seattle and Pasco and the NP used a little 4-6-0 for power in the early 1950s later a Baldwin diesel roadswitcher with steam generator was the power. The station still stands in Walla Walla and a observation sits outside the station and the station and car are all part of a beautiful upscale restaurant.
Al - in - Stockton
PS took the day off and went to Winterail. Several book authors there so got some books autographed. Great show as usual.
Al, this would be a good guess if it were so, but you are about as far away from the operation as anyone could be. I donât have a sixties Guide down here to check as to when yours was discontinued.
Of course. I read it as possibly Seattle is about as far from a New York train as you can get, and not necessarily the train is as far from Washington State as you can get, which puts it in Florida. No idea.
Now weâre getting somewhere. Look Ahead, Look South puts us on the Southern Rwy. I believe the car would be the Atlanta - Brunswick sleeper carried in the KC-Fla Special between Atl and Jesup and then on the 40 miles to Brunswick in an unnamed connecting train headed probably by a GP road switcher.
Mark, you have the sleeper line, complete with the name of the name train. The 10-1-65 Southern timetable shows the car; the 5-1-66 timetable does not. I really had another type of engine in mind, but I will accept your answer, for Dave Morgan mentioned the engine in his article in the January 1965 issue of Trains, stating that it was a Geep. By then, the train no longer went to Jacksonville, but was strictly a Birmingham-Brunswick train on the Southern with a through coach between Kansas City and Brunswick!
If I had had the wherewithal on New Yearâs night 1962, I would have asked about a berth from Jesup to Atlanta in this car. Instead, I spent most of the night in an unheated washroom in a Frisco coach, since the coaches were filled with people returning from the New Yearâs Day football games in Florida. (The night before, I had two facing seats all to myself as I went down to Jesup.)
Ahaa, itâs hard to fool us old timers. I imagine most readers donât remember when the Southern used to advertise âLook Ahead, Look Southâ. As soon as I spotted that disguised hint I knew the railroad and the 40 mile distance from Jesup to Brunswick made the rest of the answer easy. But until now I had no idea that through cars continued to run to Brunswick after the KC-Fla Spcl was discontinued into Jacksonville.
Your tale about riding in an unheated coach restroom reminded me of a trip I took on the Georgian in mid-winter 1948 or 49. The weather was almost balmy when I boarded the train in Atlanta but it was absolutely frigid by the time we reached northern Illinois. I had a call of nature that couldnât be denied as the train left Danville on the C&EI so I headed for the menâs room which turned out to be unheated. The toilet outlet was frozen in a partially opened position which exposed me to a blast of Icy air as we sped along. I thought I was going to freeze to the seat and was never so cold except one night on bivouac in mid-winter when I was a basic trainee at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.
So much for the war stories. Iâm heading to my daughterâs for her 49th birthday and will try to have another question in mind by the time I get back tonight.
If anyone is wondering about the reference to the January 1965 Trains, that issue has quite an article by Dave Morgan in which he describes the trip he and his wife took in the Brunswick-Atlanta car in the summer of '64. I forgot to mention the article in my previous post on this thread.
In the 1960âs a certain railroad ran two identical trains over two different routes which had one common end point, Headed by a single E unit, their three car consists were a baggage/mail/express car, a single coach and a round end coach/cafe/tavern lounge observation car. All cars were streamlined lightweights. At their common end point they were combined and additional cars were added to form a name train that ran on to a third destination. Going in the opposite direction this procedure was reversed to split the name train into the two little streamliners. What was the railroad, the end points of all three trains and the name train involved in this service?
