Riding the Southland

[Anonymous]

It was in the Winter of either 1942 or 1943 and my Uncle drove my Aunt and I the 30 odd miles from Bradenton, Fla. to the Union Station in Tampa. I was 10 or maybe 11 years old and very excited because this was to be my first ever trip on a long distance train and in a Pullman sleeper no less! As I recall the Tampa section of the Southland consisted of four Pullmans and four or five coaches plus a number of head end cars. All were heavy weights.

Our porter took our luggage on board and showed my Aunt and I to our open section seats. I can't remember exactly but think our car had 14 sections with one compartment and possible two bedrooms. We pulled out of Tampa at dusk behind an Atlantic Coast Line 4-8-2 which was one of several the ACL had purchased from the Lackawanna expressly for service on the Southland. Our first stop was at Trilby and I accompanied out porter to one of the car's vestibules where he opened the top half of the door and invited me to look out with him to watch the coaches and Pullmans from the St. Petersburg section being added to our train.

Not long after leaving Trilby our porter made up our berths and my Aunt took the lower while I climbed the ladder and bedded down in the upper. I was a little disappointed that my Aunt had the window while I had to be content with listening to the clickety clack of the rail joints and the occasional deep chime whistle of that big mountain engine as she rolled through the sparsely populated (at that time) upper Gulf coast.

The Southland ran over the ACL's Perry cutoff which by passed Jacksonville and ran through such metropolises as Gulf Hammock, Shamrock, Chiefland, and Perry (it's namesake). For years I was of the belief that the Southland was limited to 30 mph over this route because of its big engine and the lightly built roadbed. The Perry cutoff was laid with 90 lb. rail much of which was only cinder ballasted. Needless to say it was "dark" territory with timetable and train order operations. Recently Russell Tedder informed me that the ACL's Employee Timetables showed a 59 mph speed limit over the "Cutoff". I'll bow to Russell's superior knowledge since he grew up around Perry and as young man was the Live Oak, Perry & Gulf's agent/operator at Perry. In any event I was so excited that I lay in my gently swaying upper berth for hours listening to the muted train sounds before finally falling asleep.

Sometime around sunup The ACL handed us off to the Central of Georgia and when I awoke, got dressed quickly and headed for breakfast with my Aunt. We were really highballing compared to our more leisurely pace over the ACL. Breakfast in that CoG diner which had been added to our train as we sped up the main to Atlanta at breakneck speed behind a CofG 4-8-2 was truly memorable. It was both the first time I had ever eaten in a dining car and also the fastest I had ever travelled! I learned we had been 20 minutes late leaving Albany, GA. but the CofG made it up and put us into Atlanta on the dot.

At Atlanta we dropped off at least the Tampa-Atlanta sleeper and maybe a St. Pete-Atlanta Pullman as well. I believe (but am not sure) we picked up a sleeper from the CoG's overnight train from Savannah. The CofG diner was dropped and a Louisville & Nashville diner added; undoubtedly there was some shuffling of head end cars and coaches as well.

We left Atlanta on the L&N late in the morning for the day time run through the mountains of north Georgia, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky. This line was single tracked but semaphore block signalled all the way to Cincinnatti. This was truly "curve city" all the way around the mountains and through the valleys. While we were double headed by a pair of L&N 4-6-2's I doubt if we ever hit 60 mph due to the length of the Southland combined with those mountain grades and the speed restrictions on the curves. Not too long after lunch in the diner we were in Tennessee and as we went around the curves I was watching that double header and the semaphores dropping as we passed them until I dozed off ocassionally.

I'd wake up from my slumbers as the train slowed for a staion stop and I remember three things quite distinctly about that afternoon. First, at some small town in the mountains where a branch of the Southern Railway interchanged with the L&N I saw a SR compound articulated 2-8-8-2. This was my first ever sight of such an engine!
Second, I remember stopping at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the surprising number of passengers who got off there, undobtedly employees of the atomic plant which could be seen across the valley from the L&N's station. Third, and again at another small mountain town where the Kentucky & Tennessee terminated and had an engine house right alongside the L&N main with several K&T 2-8-0's and 2-8-2' s on their service tracks in plain view.

At Corbin, Kentucky we changed engines and after a sumptuous meal in the diner (my Aunt who was paying the bill indulged my every wish) we soon retired for the night. I slept like a log and never even opened my eyes at our Cincinnatti Union Station stop where the L&N handed us off to the Pennsylvania RR. The next morning I barely woke in time to get dressed and get off the train at Gary, Indiana where my Dad was waiting to pick us up on the snowy wind blown station platfrom. Oh yes, the Pennsy had run the train with a pair of K-4 Pacifics on the overnight dash from Cincinnatti to Chicago.

Mark

[daveklepper]

I want to thank you for an excellent memory and an excellent way of informing us of your trip.   It is delightful reading of your story.   Interesting that such high standards of service were upheld right in the middle of WWII, and this checks with my own experiences when traveling as a youngster.

[Frederick K. Zahrt]

I'm reading Day of Trinity.  On page 150, it talks about a trip some uranium made from Oak Ridge to Los Alamos on the "Southland" from Cincinatti to Chicago, where they boarded the Santa Fe "Chief" at 12:01PM.  I believe the Pennsylvania went through our town, Winamac, IN, from 1944 for many years.   I would like to verify that and perhaps the days and times it did--going north.  My parents lived in Winamac.  Nobody from town, that I know of, ever knew uranium for the atomic bomb passed through Winamac.

Is there anyway you could help me??

Thanks,

fkz

[KCSfan]

Frederick K. Zahrt

I'm reading Day of Trinity.  On page 150, it talks about a trip some uranium made from Oak Ridge to Los Alamos on the "Southland" from Cincinatti to Chicago, where they boarded the Santa Fe "Chief" at 12:01PM.  I believe the Pennsylvania went through our town, Winamac, IN, from 1944 for many years.   I would like to verify that and perhaps the days and times it did--going north.  My parents lived in Winamac.  Nobody from town, that I know of, ever knew uranium for the atomic bomb passed through Winamac.

Is there anyway you could help me??

Thanks,

fkz

Yes, the Southland did pass through Winamac on its run over the Pennsy between Chicago and Cincy. It did not stop there however and Logansport was the closest station stop. In the early 50's the Southland's scheduled times at Logansport were 1:10 am southbound and 4:20 am northbound. Wartime schedules were somewhat different but as I recall were within an hour of those in the 50's.

Mark

[daveklepper]

Thanks for  a terrific posting

[Frederick K. Zahrt]

Mark

 

Thanks so much !

fkz

[Deggesty]

Thanks, also, for the account of your trip from Tampa to Gary. From my first knowing of the route, I wanted to travel it, but was not able to do so. With your account, I have now traveled it vicariously.