Calling “up over” posters…[:0]
Seaboard Coast Line - I guess is self explanatory - connecting towns along the coast (?) (and that’s a guess anyway[:I][:I]), but Seaboard Air Line…hmmm…that’s got me beat [:(] [:I][:I]
Down here “Air Line” or “Air Train” would usually refer to a passenger line running out to the airport from the city centre…hmmm…thanks for any input, crew [:)][;)]
Dave [:)]
(Kozzie)
Thanks very much Paul [:)] Fascinating stuff!
Another expression similar to that, that comes to mind is “as the crow flies” heh heh [;)]
I guess the Shinkansen lines in Japan are pretty much “Air lInes” as they bore through mountains and hills, have raised track on piers where needed and very gentle curves…[;)]
Dave
Sorry Mark! I don’t know where “Paul” came from…I got muddled…Thanks Mark!
The old SAL had a lot of long straight stretches of track, including the longest one in the U.S., on the line inland from Wilmington NC through Lumberton. IIRC, it’s 79.86 miles long, and the curve on the east end is inconsequential, only 2 or 3 degrees. If you’ve driven down I-95 through Lumberton, you’ve driven over it.
One of the other top-ten tangents is the ex-ACL west from Waycross to Kinderlou (just west of Valdosta), GA, which is 60 miles and change long. TRAINS had an article on the Wilmington-Lumberton line years ago (since I started subscribing in 1979) that listed the ten longest tangents in this country.
Another bit of trivia: After Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight in the 1920’s, Seaboard Air Line stock was much in demand. A good many ignorant people got caught up in the air-travel craze and bought it without doing enough research to find out if was a railroad, not an airline.
Also according to the Trains Special Edition on “Steam Glory:” SAL was one of the first users of the Fast Freight Articulated. My Dad saw one on a run through in Athens, GA once and wondered how something so big could stay on the rails
Dave,
You may already know this, but Seaboard Coast Line was the resulting name after the merger between Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line.
Jay
i rode the ACL for the first time around 1943 at the age of 11, rode the ACL and the SAL quite frequently when stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, 1954-1956, and then doing architectural acoustics consulting 1957-1996, the last years of course SCL and Amtrak. I always believe that despite its hill and dale profile and single-track (CTC applied very early) operation, that SAL met the ACL’s competition in every way. Both railroads provided excellent and fast passenger service, and ran their freights, particulary Florida perishables, fast. Both dieselized passenger service early, and the SAL beat the ACL in freight diesilization. The SCL continued that tradition, and passenger service was generally good, like the Sante Fe nd UP, right up to Amtrak. One difference: the ACL tended to borrow lightweight equipment from the UP and other railroads to meet the demand peak for winter Florida service (the Florida Special particularly had lots of "foreign"sleepers), while the SAL had lots of rebuilt and modernized heavyweights to add to its through trains for the winter peaks demand period. The SAL also had some “Ämerican Flyer” coaches, like the New Haven’s 8200 series. At one time both the East oast Champion, ACL, and the Silver Meteor, SAL, had 24 hour NY-Miami timings…
To my knowlege the only reason that the other railroad in the South (SOUTHERN) kept its Cresant service out of AMTRACK not because Mr. Claytor particularly loved the passenger business (which he did as an unabashed railfan). I am told by some of the old hands from Southern that he kept his service so as not to have anybody schedule his railroad but him. The nice thing about this was that he kept the service at pre-AMTRACK levels. I had the pleasure of riding The Cresant in 1976 and it was great, especially the food and the service of a particular porter named Clarence, a real gentleman like the guy the folks called Sir around the Southern. To bad it didn’t make money, because instead of just going like you do by plane, automobile or bus; on that train, you traveled
Kozzie, thanks for your interest in the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and The Atlantic Coast Line Railway, which became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, in 1966. The Amtrak-The National Railroad Passenger Corp. Superceeded all national passenger service on May 1, 1971. Abruptly. The only sevice not involved, was the Sourthern Railway System. From the city of Jacksonville, Florida, north and west, the SCL was competitive to the SRR, and The Louisville & Nashville Railroad. South of J-Ville, the SCL turned southwest, away from the only other compeditor, the Florida East Coast Railway. The rail weight capacity dropped, 90 lb. (US pound weight) to 115 lb. per three foot yard(US yard lenght). In 1985, the weight restriction on the EMD SD50 locomotives, Isolated the heavy motive power to Lakeland, FL, to Tampa, FL. and north on the old SAL line from Lakeland to Baldwin, FL, 15 miles west of Jacksonville, FL. So the alleged monoply on rail service existed, until the world class compeditor CSX Transportation Corp. was formed in 1982. Bus, airline, auto transportation eliminated the hope for rail passenger service, a long time ago. Everyone in the world loved the “WED-way People Mover,” and the monorail service which Walt Disney brought to Orange County, Orlando, Florida, with Walt Disney World, however no one forsaw the impending, need for such mass transportation. SCL, I know theywere “Pulling For You,” but what a boring paint job! Enjoy Your Study on the Southeastern United States of America! ACJ.
[^][^]Hear, Hear, as a Carolina Gentleman to a Tennessee Gentleman, WELL SAID[bow][bow][#ditto]
Thanks Allen. [:)] I’ll have to read this a couple of times, with my Eastern U.S. map heh heh - that will help me get it all straight. [;)]
While we’re talking about SCL, I noticed in my local model train shop that Wathers have brought out SCL (and SAL) Budd (?) s/steel passenger cars. Some of the SCL cars have black roofs. A bit unusual…? Was black a big part of SCL colour scheme?
Terrible used to mean really good?
That’s crazy!
I wonder how the word morphed over into a complete opposite.
Hmm, looking up the definition I can see how the word was used in the positive…
"formidable in nature : AWESOME "
Interesting how things change.
Kozzie, thanks for the good words, I so needed that today! As for the roof color black, I’ll need Mr. Mark Hemphill to help me on this one, several roads painted certain items’ roofs black, for example, the Central of Georgia Railway ALCo RS 3’s were blue, grey, w/ black band, and had black roofs. However the sun often baked the pigment out of the paint, and the paint faded. My best guess, is that the roof was tarred black by Budd to prevent roof leaks. Yes, just as I’ m trying to locate a map of Austrailia, and New Zeland, I wrote my reply for a railfan a half a world away! Enjoy Your Trainz! ACJ.
Mark: that is almost a why ask why question. Time and distance from those happenings (shows my age doesn’t it) makes that painting practice as much a mystery as why the Southern Shop mispelling Southern as Southorn on a Big John Boxcar when Mr. Brosnan ran the place back in the 60’s
Mark,
That sounds vaguely familiar. I recall a letter to the Editor (Trains?) sometime in the early 70s, that essentially said "if we (SCL) had been able to cut passenger service as much as Amtrak did [on Day One], SCL never would have joined Amtrak.
MP