Miracle at Charlottesville - Chapter 5

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                    MIRACLE AT CHARLOTTESVILLE

                                   CHAPTER 5

When classes were over and it was time to depart San Angelo on leave, how were we going to travel?  Glad you asked!  The Santa Fe served San Angelo but was freight only to that city by then.  So, alternative transportation was called for.  Steve was going to take the bus to Ft. Worth, then the Texas Chief home to Chicago.  One of we four going to Turkey happened to live in Dallas, and he was going to drive Ron (the sailor I met that first morning in Monterey and who was also heading for Turkey) to Dallas where he would catch the Dallas section of the Texas Chief home to Kansas City.  Yes, Steve and I talked him into taking the train.  Steve explained to Ron that the two trains would be combined at Gainesville TX, after which Steve would walk the train looking for Ron.  Ron’s reaction: “Yeah, right…”  So the trains did… and Steve did… and Ron was amply surprised when Steve found him.  The other fellow destined for Turkey was spending his leave somewhere on the East Coast, and we talked him into taking the Southerner north from New Orleans.  Don’t remember how he got to New Orleans - probably by bus - but do recall that upon questioning him in Turkey about his train trip, he said that he was not impressed.  Hmph!  Don’t recall what Ron thought of the Texas Chief, but as he and Steve spent much of the trip as far as Kansas City in the lounge car, he was probably not feeling any pain.  My wife and I would drive home to Columbus, get rid of the used car before I went overseas, and she would go back to live with her mother in Toledo and work during that time.

Interestingly, another fellow also destined for Japan with Steve, and who was from Rhode Island, somehow knew a girl living near Columbus.  To save money, Harry asked to ride to Columbus with us, and rent a car to visit his lady friend.  I warned him that we would not drive through without stopping overnight, and there would be train chasing involved.  He was game anyway (poor guy.)  We left shortly after a midnight in early February… met dawn around Oklahoma City… and I succeeded in nabbing some passenger trains en route.

First came Kansas City Southern’s colorful Southern Belle, clad in its very dark green (photographs black) with red-and-yellow-trim paint scheme, departing Joplin MO southbound.  (“Harry, you gotta’ tell Steve we saw…”)  Poor Harry!  Then it was on to the FRISCO at Springfield MO.  You may know that by that time (early 1967) FRISCO had just four passenger trains left: one round trip between St. Louis and Oklahoma City, and one round trip between Kansas City and Birmingham.  All four trains were schedule to meet in Springfield in the afternoon.  When we arrived at the station, three of the four were in; the fourth arrived while we were there.  Now bear this in mind: it was a very cold day, and I’m a ‘summer person,’ so I didn’t walk around the platforms much, waiting for the Birmingham and St. Louis trains to leave.  (Poor Harry… I have some movie footage of him disconsolately wandering about the platform while I was waiting.  You can almost read his thoughts: “What am I doing here with this nut?”)  The train on the track closest to the station seemed to have the longest consist, but it was just too cold to investigate (don’t know now whether it was the Birmingham or the St. Louis train.)  So when it pulled out, I got some surprises through the viewfinder of the movie camera, including an IC baggage car and three off-line sleepers: MILW, UP, SP!  (“Harry, you gotta’ tell Steve we saw…”)  Poor Harry!

We holed up in Rolla MO that night… and left around 0300 the next morning.  Sorry, Harry, we have a date in Effingham IL around 0700.  That was just before IC #10, the Seminole, was due, up from the South.  Found the station a little before 7, and went in to check on #10’s progress… gee, an awful lot of people milling about… guess she hasn’t shown yet (no other train was due around that time.)  Then, south of town to find a grade crossing to await her.

There was just barely enough daylight by then for a movie.  About 0705 a headlight bobs over the horizon to the south.  About 0710 the train bounds into my viewfinder… a pair of E-8s or –9s… followed by only one headend car, a lightweight baggage car… WHOA, that can’t be a secondary train like the Seminole!  Good grief, it was the Panama Limited – still an all-Pullman train back then – running about an-hour-and-a-half late!  (“Harry, you gotta’ tell Steve we saw…”)  Poor Harry!  After that we proceeded on to Columbus without any further railfanning stops, and dropped Harry off at a car rental place.

Surprisingly, two or three days later Harry called me at home and wanted to know train schedules from Columbus to the East Coast so he could get home to Rhode Island.  Since Grand Central Station afforded more departures to New England than Penn Station, I suggested NYC’s Ohio State Limited out of Columbus.  My wife and I went down to the station that evening to see him off.  So, did our trip to Columbus turn Harry into a railfan?  Not hardly.  The first thing he did when he met Steve at Travis AFB in California for the flight to Japan was to excoriate Steve for “trapping” him with me on the Columbus trip!  (“But Harry, you knew the trip plans beforehand…”)

Managed some train chasing in Ohio while on leave, capturing 22 trains on movie film.  But that’s another story.

(To be continued…)