April 2012 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 39, ISSUE 4

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

April 2012

Who Was this “Harahan” Fellow, Anyway?

Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum Opens April 1st (No Joke)

52

Memphis Chapter Officers President – Walter Lang

walterhlang@yahoo.com

Vice President – Bruce Smedley Director – Bill Strong Secretary/Treasurer – Thomas Doherty Program Co-chairman – Carl Lancaster Program Co-chairman – Don Weis Yahoo Group Co-ordinater – Terry Redeker Newsletter Editor – Tom Parker

williambstrong@bellsouth.net TRDoherty@aol.com DBWeis@aol.com tkredeker@hotmail.com tscottparker@gmail.co

MARCH MEETING The March meeting was held at the Germantown Library on a very stormy night. There was a discussion on the trip to the TN yard and much talk about future trips. The treasury has $5200 and it was purposed to have the chapter pay part of the cost of long distance trips. Several suggestions included a fall foliage trip to Monterrey, TN on the Tenn Central, Amtrak trips to McComb or Effingham or to Greenville, MS for the ICHS meeting.

Give your input!

The next meeting will be the first Thursday in April at the Germantown Library, 7 P/M.

A Couple of Photos from the Tennessee Yard Tour (Tom Doherty) Harahan Bridge, looking west , Memphis, TN. Tom Parker photo.

3 Who Was This “Harahan” Fellow , Anyway?

By Tom Parker

James Theodore Harahan The Harahan Bridge has been in the news a lot lately and additionally there has been a lot of discussion among the MRTM bunch as the captions on the bridge mural are finalized.

Generally, little thought is given to the origin of the name. After all, it's been the Harahan Bridge for almost 100 years. Being from an Illinois Central family, I had known since childhood that it was named after a former president of the IC, but since the IC never crossed the bridge, I couldn't understand why.

James Theodore Harahan was born in Lowell, MA, on January 21, 1841. He began his railroad career with the United States military railroad system during the Civil War. In 1866 he began working for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and in 1888 was named Superintendent of the L&N's Memphis Division.

He advanced to the position of General Manager of the L&N and later held the same position with the C&O Railroad.

car 1902 which was attached to the rear of Illinois Central train number 25, the “New Orleans Express”.

He joined the Illinois Central in 1890 as second vice president and general manager of the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad, later to become the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley.

He oversaw the construction of the construction of a large yard just outside of New Orleans, LA, in a community named Harahan by the railroad in his honor.

Harahan had recently been named president of the Memphis Bridge and Terminal Company, which had been incorporated to build a railroad bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis. The Rock Island had bought a share in the company just a few week earlier on January 3rd and the group was enroute to Memphis to discuss the project.

In 1899, Harahan married Mary N. Mallory, the daughter of Captian William Barton Mallory, a long time friend and prominent Memphian. After the wedding at the Mallory residence in Memphis, the newlyweds left on a special train to Mexico, where they planned to stay for six to eight weeks, before returning to Chicago where they were to reside.

Number 25 was stopped at Kinmundy. Illinois for water when it was struck in the rear by train #3, the “Panama Limited. The locomotive hit the wooden Rock Island business car and ended splintering two thirds of the length of the car before coming to a stop.

During most of his career with the Illinois Central, Harahan worked under President Stuyvesant Fish. In 1906, Harahan aligned himself with Edward H. Harriman and in a heated election replaced Fish as the president of the railroad and served in that office until his mandatory retirement at the age of 70 on January 11, 1911.

If not for a fateful train wreck early January 22, 1912, Harahan would probably have been just a footnote in Memphis history.

Harahan and officials of the Rock Island Railroad were traveling in Rock Island business

Killed were Harahan, Frank O. Melcher, second vice president of the Rock Island, Judge Edward B. Pierce, general solicitor of the Rock Island and Major Eldridge E. Wright, vice president of the Memphis Bridge and Terminal Company.

Coincidentally, Train # 25 was being pulled by locomotive 1212 which was previously numbered 382, the engine in which Casey Jones met his fate over ten years earlier.

As a result James T. Harahan's death in the wreck, the bridge was posthumously named in his honor.

Bridge Mural on North Wall of Museum

Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum to Open April 1st

By Tom Parker After years of discussion and planning, the MRTM is set to open Sunday, April 1, 2012. Volunteers are rushing to have the maximum number of displays Live Steam IC 2499 should have full ready for the public by then. A lettering by opening day more formal “Grand Opening” is planned for National Train Day, May 12th.

By opening day the Mississippi River bridge mural (above) should be installed, as should be the storyboard for IC 2499.

IC 2499 has been cleaned up and painted and it should be sporting complete lettering.

For the kids, a brand new Thomas and Friends layout is up an running and the On30 layout is complete except for possibly a few landscaping details.

A recent acquisition of the MRTM was the Kentucky Street CTC. For years operators manned this board at Kentucky street and controlled rail traffic from Hulbert, Arkansas, across the Mississippi River to Tower 17.

Kentucky Street CTC Board A portion of the On30 layout Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum Schedule: Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM The brand new "Thomas and Friends" layout

Sunday 12:00 Noon – 5:00 PM

CABOOSE

NS 555004, Kingsport, TN, August 8, 2010, J. Sparks photo from the collection of Bill Strong.

J. Spar

Meeting Schedule April 5, 2012 May 10, 2012 June 14, 2012 July 12, 2012 August 2, 2012 September 13, 2012 October 9, 2012 November 13, 2012 December 6, 2012 Germantown Public Library 7-9 pm.

1925 Exeter Road Germantown, TN 38138

Contact the Editor Tom Parker 3012 Wood Thrush Drive Memphis, TN 38134 tscottparker@gmail.com