Hello everyone,
I’m a new poster but frequent reader. Thanks for all of the great information.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the crew change points were on the City of Miami?
Thanks,
IC EC
You can probably figure every 100 miles…
Barring someone who knows, look for IC terminals or major stations at that distance. That should get you pretty close.
I rode it back from NO to Chicago and enjoyed the wonderful food and cocktails in the mid-60’s but do not remember the crew change stops. Too many cocktails!!
Diningcar, you have to remember that only locomotive and train crews (i.e. Conductors, trainmen, etc) change during a trip. Hotel staff (Dining car staff, sleeping car porters, etc) did not. They are on duty beginning to end. Still that way with Amtrak. So unless you had made friends with a conductor or something, crew changes go mostly unoticed.
Back in the day, when the Freight Day was 100 miles, the Passenger Day was 150 miles for the conductor and engineer. In most cases the crew change points approximated 200 miles between changes. In am not familiar enough with the City of Miami’s route and the crew structure of the carriers involved to know where the crew change points were.
Also, sometimes engine crews might work a single district while the train crew worked over two districts.
Jeff
City of Miami did not go to New Orleans.
most likely rode the city of new Orleans. Good train, great song.
Of course, engine and train crews changed when the train moved from one railroad to the next. The ACL’s run was short, between Albany and Jacksonville, so both engine and train crews went the full distance, as well as I can tell. The FEC had two change points–Titusville? and West Palm Beach? When I rode this train into Hialeah in the winter of 1970 (SCL all the way), the train crew did not change; the engine crew may have changed in Sanford, which was a division point.
Looking at mileage, the CG train crews may well have run Birmingham-Albany; the train crews may have changed in Columbus.
On the IC, I would think Carbondale and Jackson, Tennessee, were change points, with the engine crews also changing at Champaign.
I have long understood that both firemen and engineers had the same basic day: 100 miles.
The IC had an interesting arrangement for the passenger trains on the Louisiana Division between Canton, Mississippi, and New Orleans: the crews were based in McComb, which is approximately 100 miles from each point. The train crews would leave McComb, runt o New Orleans (Canton for the City of New Orleans), rest, run to Canton (New Orleans), rest, return to McComb 24 hours after leaving, and repeat 24 hours later. The engine crews always changed in McComb. I do not know if passenger engine service was assigned as the passenger train service was, or if it was chaingang service.
Thanks, all. The Carbondale and Jackson points make sense since the CG crew would pick it up in Birmingham.
Didn’t FEC use New Smrna Beach, main loco facility, and division point for Inland services. Also Ft. Pierce another division point and the sugar line to Lake Okeechobee ?
After the FEC strike and before SCL it was ACL crews JAX - Sebring and SAL crews Sebring - MIA. After SCL unknown ? . Unknown if ACL changed crews at Sanford but probably did ?
I do not doubt that you are right. Some timetables did show arrival as well as departure times for these places, as well as I can remember. I would have had to dig through boxes in a closet to find one which showed that, and I was looking at the milepost locations. When your knees are not what they used to be, you do not do much, if any, heavy lifting.
The 100 mile days apply to FREIGHT service - not PASSENGER service, where the day was 150 miles. Freight crew change points were not necessarily passenger crew change points…
So-so train, great song, and Steve was a great guy.
maybe not the Panama Limited or the B&O Capitol Limited and certainly not the Super Chief, but the N’Orleans food was great as were the people in the round end Lounge Car.
I don’t know how many of you folks know about this website http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/welcome.html but it is a great source of information.
Thanks, pajrr (Eric Bowen), for sharing that link! I was particularly struck by the link @ http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/tickets/Train%20Travel%20Then%20and%20Now.pdf
“Travel by Train—Then and Now” “A comparison of historic and modern pricing” All of us are aware of the ‘inflation’ in our financial system, but it always amazes when items are ‘costed’ out in original cost’dollars’, and then in ‘current dollars’.[bow]
Terrific Information, and well thought out (not to mention a lot of work for such an interesting result! )[tup][tup]
I like the Streamliner Schedules website–very informative. It seems that a 150 mile day would be very short–the city of Miami averaged 50 miles per hour or so, so that would translate to a three hour day on average. Is the duty day governed by time or mileage?
My understanding is that it was, and may still be in many cases, a little of both.
In a case such as we are discussing, it’s mileage. If you’re working a job where you’ll never reach that magic mileage, it’s time.
In the old days, when passenger train crews were paid on the basis of a 150 mile day, if the run was less than 150 miles, the crews still received pay for 150 miles. If the run was more than 150 miles, they ordinarily were paid proportionally more.
In 1964, I rode the overnight train from Atlanta to Nashville. The Chattanooga to Nashville conductor told me the crews between Atlanta and Chattanooga were paid for 150 miles, even though the run was about 137 miles–and he was paid for 150 miles, even though his run was about 152 miles.
And, on the north end of the AT&N, the crews were paid a full day’s pay for a forty mile round trip, which took four hours to travel plus switching time. I made one trip with the crew.