December 2009 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 36, ISSUE 12

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

December 2009

Photos from the “Recycle Bin“ 1860's Midtown Link?

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum The “General Beauregard”

Memphis Chapter Officers President – David Chase

Hapchase@aol.com

Vice President – Bruce Smedley National Director – Bill Strong

williambstrong@bellsouth.net

Secretary – Treasurer – Thomas Doherty

TRDoherty@aol.com

Librarian – Mike Pendergrass Publication Editor – Tom Parker

tscottparker@gmail.com

This Month's Meeting In December we will be having a “Show and Tell” meeting. Everyone is encouraged to bring in an item or two from their personal railroad collection and spend 5-7 minutes talking about them. We will also have an election of officers for 2010. There are several vacancies that need filling, so your attendance is encouraged. Absentees run the risk of being elected.

New look for online Buff The look of the online of the “Memphis Buff” has changed. Using the website issuu.com, the “Buff” can now be viewed as an online magazine instead of the PDF format previously used. Access is still via the memphisrails.com website with the User ID “Member” and the password “Buff”(capital “M” and “B”).

I anticipate posting future issues even after resigning as the editor.

Cover Photo: I could call this picture “Desperado Waiting for a Train”. A train with two IC SD70's in their original “Deathstar” paint was doubled out in CN's Harrison Yard (pictured at left) . I camped out on the lowline just south of the yard and waited. And waited. I had forgotten my scanner, so I didn't have a clue as to what was going on. After about an hour and with the daylight fading, I packed up and went home. It would have been a nice picture....

Tom Parker Photo

Photos from the “Recycle Bin” By: Tom Parker

In putting together the “Buff” each month there are a lot of false starts. Some photos originally selected for inclusion in the “Buff” don't make it to the final version. Sometimes a planned article doesn't pan out, sometimes a better picture is found, sometimes the picture simply doesn't fit.

Here are some pictures I found on my hard drive that didn't make the cut.

Post card showing Mammoth Cave Railroad locomotive Number 3. Its brother, Number 4, was built for the East End Railroad which operated between downtown Memphis and Montgomery Park (now the Fairgrounds) (For the March, 2008, “Buff” article “The Memphis Dummies”)

Edith Barnett and Mary Mayer, September 2, 1979, National Railway Historical Society Annual meeting,Wilmington, DE. (February 2008 “Buff” notice of Edith's death)

“Powered by a trio of EMD E7 locomotives, Illinois Central train No. 2, the City of New Orleans, speeds through Wickliffe, Kentucky on June 24, 1951.This image is from the collection of the photographs of the late Otto Perry.” Where and why I got this image I don't know, but it was in my folder for the December 2007“Buff”.

This is the brick culvert that collapsed beneath the tracks at Central Station. The picture was in the December, 2008 “Buff” file, but I didn't follow up on my idea for an article.

1860's Midtown Link?

The "Gulfport" on its way to the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, IL. Picture from the Monticello Railway Museum web site. (For the January, 2009, “Buff" article “The “Panama Limited”, the “Memphis” and the “Gulfport” Pullman Cars”)

The "Hickory Creek" at Washington, DC, October 25, 2008, Photo copyright by Jeff Lubchansky. (For the article “The “Twentieth Century”'s “Hickory Creek”, May 2009 “Buff”)

The above detail is from a map commissioned by Major General W.T. Sherman during the Civil War. It shows a rail line linking the Memphis & Charleston (bottom) and the Memphis & Ohio (top) located about where Watkins Avenue is today.

An 1870 map shows no such track. The question is: Did it ever exist or was Gen. Sherman provided with faulty intelligence? The full map is on line at memphisrails.com.

Tom Parker

A Visit to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

by Tom Parker

On November 21st I had the opportunity to visit the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

The Museum was originally founded as a Chapter of the NRHS in 1960 and incorporated in 1961. The museum opened to the public in 1971. At the time there were no permanent structures, but donations of land and abandoned right of way by the Southern Railway had allowed the museum to construct a yard for storage and repair of equipment and construction of a track through the Missionary Ridge tunnel.

At that time the line ended at Tunnel Road because the overpass had been removed.

My brother, Mike, is interested in the Pullman car “General Beauregard”, which is undergoing restoration at the museum. Mike has been in contact with one of its owners, Bob Ralph, who kindly agreed to let Mike get a close up look at the “General”. Mike invited me to tag along.

After locating Bob, we took a tour of the “General”. Bob then invited us to take a ride on the “North Pole Express” to

TVRM Consolidation 610 pulls the "North Pole Limited" into the North Pole station

Leaving its train at the depot, the 610 takes a ride on the turntable in preparation for its return trip to Grand Junction

Grand Junction and back.

We rode in TVRM 873, a chair/grill/lounge car built by

ACF for the MP in 1948 on the outbound trip. On the return trip Mike and I were treated to a ride in the cab of the 610.

The engineer drives....

The abandoned NS right of way included the Missionary Ridge Tunnel

and the fireman stokes the fire.

"Grand Junction" is the main depot. Despite the architecture, it is a modern building and contains the ticket office, gift shop and restaurant

An empty coal train heads for Memphis and beyond on the adjacent NS track

The “General Beauregard”

by Tom Parker

Illinois Central Diagram of "General Beauregard" and "General Jackson"

As the Illinois Central began to scale back its passenger operations in the 1960's, it began to reduce the size of its passenger car fleet. One of the casualties of the downsizing was the sleeper/ lounge car the “General Beauregard”.

The “General Beauregard” entered serivce in 1942 as part of one of the two sets of streamlined equipment for the newly dieselized “Panama Limited”.

The “General Jackson”was its counterpart in the other set of equipment. Both cars later also saw service on the “City of Miami”.

Some of the cars passed through Memphis on the way to their new assignments or sadly, the scrap yard.

At the time, my brother, Mike, was working as a yard clerk at Johnston Yard. One of his duties each afternoon was to check the shop tracks prior to them being switched each evening. One afternoon he noticed several passenger cars sitting on the tracks outside the shop, among them the “General Beauregard”.

The cars wern't locked and

Mike decided to take a tour of the “General”.

Fast forward some forty odd years. Retirement has rekindled Mike's interest in model railroading and rail history.

With the help of the internet, Mike began tracking down former Illinois Central passenger equipment. Thats how he discovered the “General Beauregard” at the Tennessee

“General Beauregard"

Valley Railway Museum.

A series of e-mails put Mike in touch with Bob Ralph, a coowner of the “General Beauregard. Bob extended an invitation to come and get a first hand look at his project.

We arrived at the museum and were directed to the car.

Bob and his partner, Bruce Backus, were doing some spray painting inside the car, so Bob showed us the work underway on the exterior while the air cleared inside.

The roof work has been completed and had received it final coat of paint. Perhaps the biggest job on the body is replacement of the sills which have rusted away due the gaskets around the windows leaking, allowing water to enter the walls of the car.

Interior of the "General Beuregard" as built

Additional water tanks, modern plumbing and air conditioning are planned for the undercarriage, as well as high speed trucks. The car will be up to Amtrak standards when completed. Hopefully, except for the mechanicals under-

The "General Beauregard" as found by Bob Ralph. The car had been "cornered" by the previous owner and Bob had to make temporary repairs to the steps and end sill for movement to the TVRM. Bob Ralph Photo

Exterior sheet metal has been cut away, revealing the rusted out side sills. The retractable steps, damaged when the car was "cornered", have been replaced.

neath, the exterior work will be finished sometime in the spring of 2010 and the car can receive its orange and brown Illinois Central paint.

Most of the interior has been gutted to facilitate the repair of the sheet metal and to replace the original flammable insulation. The original asbestos insulation slated for use in the car was appropriated for use in the war effort, an unintended benefit when refurbishing one of these cars.

Plans are to restore the interior to the original dĂŠcor, so a lot of the removed material such as orange colored formica wall panels and pink mosaic tile applied to the horseshoe shaped bar will not be reinstalled.

After painting the interior

Mercifully, some interior features will not be reinstalled.

Bob Ralph Photo

Inside the lounge area of the "General Beauregard" From left to right, Bob Ralph, Glenda Parker, Mike Parker and Bruce Backus Tom Parker photo

walls, the insulation and ductwork will be installed in the roof and then the ceiling will go in. Next will be the wall insulation and walls. The hope is to to

have the car on the road by 2012.

Mike and I are already looking forward to making another trip

A look down the hall after painting. That's baseboard heating laying on the floor which will be installed along the extrerior wall.

Mike Parker photo

to Chattanooga in a few years to see the final product. Dare we dream of some day seeing the restored “Gulfport” and “General Beauregard” bring up the markers on the “City of New Orleans”?

The group and the "General". Left to right: Glenda Parker, Mike Parker, Bob Ralph, Tom Parker and Glenda Parker. (Yes, they're both Glendas) Photo by "Kate" Pictures? - Bob Ralph is seeking any pictures of the “General” in action. If you have some, let me know and I'll pass the information along.

Tom P.

CABOOSE

“General Beauregard�, Tennessee Valley Railway Museum, Chattanooga, TN. Tom Parker Photo Meeting Schedule December 14, 2009 Meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month in the White Station Branch Library from 7-9 pm.

5094 Poplar Avenue Memphis, TN (in front of Clark Tower)

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

THE MEMPHIS BUFF welcomes contributions for publication. Copyrighted materials must contain the source. Original documents and photos are preferred for clarity. Enclose a SASE for the return of your materials. Articles sent via the Internet should be in Microsoft Word format. Photos should be JPEG files @ 72 dpi and at least 800x600 size. Consideration for a cover photo would require a much higher resolution. THE MEMPHIS BUFF is a not-for-profit publication for the Memphis Chapter of the NRHS. All credited photos herein are copyright by the photographer and may not be reused without permission.