February 2012 Memphis Buff

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THE MEMPHIS BUFF THE MEMPHIS BUFF VOLUME 39, ISSUE 2 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY February 2012 VOLUME 39, ISSUE 2 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY February 2012 A Box of “Stuff” From Central Station A Box of “Stuff” From Central Station Rock Island Pillow Man Busted Rock Island Pillow Man Busted Platform reconfiguration for City of New Orleans Platform reconfiguration for City of New Orleans Plan to Enclose the Lower Concourse Plan to Enclose the Lower Concourse

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A Box of Stuff From Central Station

Transcript of February 2012 Memphis Buff

Page 1: February 2012 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFFTHE MEMPHIS BUFFVOLUME 39, ISSUE 2 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY February 2012VOLUME 39, ISSUE 2 NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY February 2012

A Box of “Stuff” From Central Station A Box of “Stuff” From Central Station

Rock Island Pillow Man BustedRock Island Pillow Man BustedPlatform reconfiguration for City of New OrleansPlatform reconfiguration for City of New Orleans

Plan to Enclose the Lower ConcoursePlan to Enclose the Lower Concourse

Page 2: February 2012 Memphis Buff

Memphis Chapter OfficersPresident – Walter Lang [email protected] President – Bruce SmedleyDirector – Bill Strong [email protected]/Treasurer – Thomas Doherty [email protected] Co-chairman – Carl LancasterProgram Co-chairman – Don Weis [email protected] Group Co-ordinater – Terry Redeker [email protected] Editor – Tom Parker [email protected]

Last Months Meeting

Last months meeting was a dinner meeting held at Dino's Grill on N. McLean. Dinner was at 6:00 P.M. and the meeting started at its' regular time of 7:00 P.M. During the business meeting it was agreed that periodically we'd hold our meetings at places other than the Germantown Library. The library will be our normal meeting place.

After the business meeting Terry Redeker presented a program based on his photography and Train watching trips in 2010.

Next months meeting will be held at the Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum located in Central Station.

Remember – The February meeting will be held at the Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum in Central Station, 545 South Main. The museum entrance is just south of the Amtrak entrance on Main Street. See you there!

Next MeetingThursday, February 9, 2012

7:00 PMMRTM

545 S. Main, Suite 121 A MRTM meeting inside the museum

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A Box of Stuff from Central Station

By Tom Parker

An acquaintance of mine from a previous life when I was em-ployed by the Illinois Central Railroad mentioned to me years ago that he had acquired some material from Central Station after it had been abandoned by the railroad, boarded up and left to deteriorate. Being in-volved in the development of the Memphis Railroad and Trol-ley Museum, I remembered his comment and wondered if he would be interested in donating the material to the Museum.

I contacted him by email and he answered me back “It doesn't amount to much... I'll box it up and send it down to you”. Later sent me another email saying he would be in town over the Christmas holidays and would arrange to get the material to me. The arrangements were made and a couple of days after Christmas I picked up the box.

It was a box like thousands of other boxes that were used by the railroad in all of their offices up and down the railroad. In the days before computers, paper was the preferred communica-tion media used by the railroad and practically every commu-nication ended up in a box such as this one, on a shelf, in one of the many offices up and down the railroad.

This box was labeled “Central Station, A-5, Box A”. The desig-

nation itself indicated that it was one of many. Indeed, the source of the box said it was but one on “a wall of boxes in the engineer and surveyor's of-fices”.

The following stories represent some of the material in the box. Imagine all the stories and in-formation that have been lost in all those other boxes.

This diagram of the tracks between Beale Street and Central Station was found in the box.

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Rock Island Pillow Man Busted!By Tom Parker

About 10:00 PM, on June 25, 1960,baggage clerk L. C. Acree phoned the Illinois Central Special Agent's office and reported spotting some black men in the rear of the baggage room and they appeared to have been drinking. Upon investig-ating, Patrolman T. C. “Big Tom” Lambeth and Lieutenant Fred W. Hatcher were unable to find the reported individuals in the baggage room area but they were subsequently located on the platform near track six.

The individuals, James and John Rogers, stated that they were friends of Frank Taylor, who sold pillows on Rock Island Train #21, and were looking for him. They both had the strong odor of alcohol on their breath and admitted to have been drinking. The agents escorted the subjects back to the baggage room where they found Frank Taylor.Taylor stated that the two men had come to the station to pick him up after he had finished selling pillows on the Rock Island train. Taylor further stated that he was not an employee of the Rock Island, but was authorized to sell pillows on train 21 prior to its departure from Central Station. The railroad furnished the pillow and pil-

low cases. He laundered the pillow cases and was allowed to keep the money he received for renting the pillows.The Rock Island Passenger Agent Trotter was called and informed of the situation and said that he would handle the matter with Taylor. Since they did not appear to be inebriated, all three were escorted off the property. James and John Rogers were told not to come back unless they had business to transact.According to a note from Stationmaster J.F. Owen dated June 29, 1960, in early 1959 the Rock Island Railroad eliminated chair car attend-ants on their trains. In order to accommodate their passengers, arrangements were made with R. L. McEwen an usher employed by the Illinois Central, to meet inbound train #21 and collect the pillows , launder the pillow cases and rent them to passengers on train #22. This did not conflict with McEwen's regular duties and Sta-tionmaster Owen agreed to the practice for the comfort and convenience of the Rock Island pas-sengers. Over time, McEwen's duties changed and he was no longer able to meet the trains. Un-beknownst to Owen and the Illinois Central, McEwen turned the pillow concession to Taylor. In his note, Owen also reported that Taylor had been “relieved of duty” and a Eugene Cunning-ham had been engaged by the Rock Island to perform the service. As a result of Taylor's dis-missal, the Special Agent's office closed the case on July 1, 1960.Correspondence was exchanged between Frank J. Duggan, Superintendent of the Tennessee Di-vision, Illinois Central Railroad and Superintend-ent R. W. Anderson of the Rock Island in Little Rock. Duggan's main concern was that of the Illinois Central's liability should the concession-aire be injured or killed or cause death or injury to other persons. In a letter dated October 24, 1960, Superintendent Anderson agreed that the concessionaire would be considered an employ-ee of The Rock Island.

Central Station Baggage Room circa 1964(L&N photo from Mike Condren's Website)

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Reconfiguration of Platforms for

The City of New OrleansBy Tom Parker

On Saturday, July 31, 1948, C.H. Mottier, Vice President and Chief Engineer of the Illinois Cent-ral Railroad, while in Memphis, had occasion to notice the handling of passengers on the South-bound City of New Orleans. In a letter dated Au-gust 3, 1948, to H. K. Buck, Memphis Terminal Superintendent, Mr. Mottier noted that the rear cars were spotted north of the platform and some passengers attempting to board the train were walking over switch rods and around switch stand of the slip switch in track nine. To alleviate the situation, he proposed moving a crossover some 300 feet north and reconfigura-tion of other tracks and switches to allow ex-tending the platform northward between tracks nine and ten.

On August 5th, Mr. Buck passed the inquiry on to Trainmaster A. B. “Archie” Holt and Division En-gineer E. H. Lewis. After investigating the situ-ation, In a memo to the Superintendent dated Oc-tober 4th, Holt reported that after going over the location with Lewis and a Mr. Lang, that Lang had drawn up a plan to “move the puzzle switch

north of the crossover leading from the south-ward main to long 10, which will make an im-provement at the north end of 9”.

Later correspondence on November 3rd indic-ated that nothing could be done with the connec-tion of track No. 8 due to location of the stairway canopy and sky light and that the existing cros-sover probably could not be used at the new loc-ation due to the curvature of the track. The file ends with the November 3rd correspondence, but obviously all the problems were worked out and the platforms were installed.

It's amazing what a letter from a V.P. Can do!

From Mike Condren website – Phil Gosney PhotoThese wooden passenger platforms north of the lower concourse subway and stairs were installed after C. H. Mottier noticed passengers having difficulty boarding the southbound City of New Orleans.

Part of the drawing attached to C. H. Mottier's letter showing suggested new platforms in red and required reconfiguration of track.

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1948 Plan to enclose concourses at Central Station

By Tom Parker

When the renovated Central Station opened in September of 1999, the previously open air up-per concourse had been enclosed with glass windows and doors on its south wall. As it turns out, this was hardly a new idea. A proposal to enclose the upper and lower concourses was considered over fifty years earlier in 1947.On September 30, 1947, E. O Korsmo Construc-tion Company submitted an estimate of $6,105.00 for enclosing the upper concourse and installing doors in the lower concourse of Cent-ral Station. It is not clear why the estimate was submitted, but it would be assumed that the es-timate was requested by the railroad. The estim-ate was forwarded to B.M. Murdoch in the Divi-sion Engineer's office by Superintendent H.K. Buck with the observation in his memo that it would “provide all weather protection for this area, and relieve a very congested condition in the waiting rooms”. It's ironic that ultimately the purpose of enclosing the upper concourse was to consolidate all the passenger functions in a small area, rather than expand the waiting room area to relieve congestion. On December 11th the Division Engineer re-turned an estimate of $9,200 for the project. Later on March 2, 1951, the estimate was in-creased to $12,300 by the Division Engineer. On January 7, 1952, the Division Engineer's office traced the Superintendent and asked if the file should be closed. Evidently the answer was that it should as there was no further correspond-

ence. Possibly the increase in cost and decrease in passenger traffic were the causes for drop-ping the plan.

Blueprint of south wall of Central Station showing enclosed concourse. (1947)

Enclosed concourse circa 1999

A couple of cool blueprints!

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CABOOSE

CB&Q 10625From the collection of Bill Strong

Meeting Schedule

ThursdayFebruary 9, 2012

Meeting Location: Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum

7-9 pm.545 S. Main, Suite 121

Memphis, TN 38103

Contact the EditorTom Parker

3012 Wood Thrush DriveMemphis, TN 38134

[email protected]