December 2012 Buff1

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 39, ISSUE 12

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Memphis ATCS Monitor On Line “Fallen Flags” Business Cards Parkway Industries

December 2012

82

Memphis Chapter Officers President – Walter Lang

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

walterhlang@yahoo.com

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

November Meeting

What is it?

The November meeting was held at the Germantown Library Tues 12 Nov. Walter announced that next year all meetings will be held on the second Thursday of the month at the Germantown library. The April and November meetings will be dinner meetings held most likely at Dino's.

Next months meeting will be Thursday Dec 6 (please note this is the first Thursday) at Germantown Library. It will also be our annual elections meeting. Members NOT in attendance will automatically be placed in nomination for a position.

Tom reminded everyone dues are do and the total for chapter and national is $49 not the $54 as shown on the invoice from National NRHS. Also if you receive a hard copy of The Buff add an extra $12 for printing and mailing. Any questions about dues call Tom at 754-1674.

ANSWER:

Michael Jack stated there are many new items at the Trolley museum so go check it out.

There was a discussion about the new NS railcard in Rossville and Walter presented a program on train videos.

Three new antennas grace the top of Memphis Central Station. The cover photo shows two of them. One of the two outermost antennas on the mast will receive voice transmissions of the railroads in the Memphis area while the other will receive BNSF ATCS signals. The middle antenna is leftover from the Illinois Central occupancy of the station and is not connected. The third new antenna, not visible in the photograph, will receive ATCS transmissions from the UP .

Memphis ATCS Monitor Online by:Tom Parker

After approximately six months of planning and work, the Memphis ATCS Monitor server is scheduled to go online on December 1st. Sponsored by the Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum, the server will allow railfans anywhere in the world to monitor movements of trains in the Memphis area via the internet.

An added bonus is the inclusion of a scanner radio which will monitor the radio transmission of all the railroads in Memphis, The radio transmissions will also be available online at radioreference.com.

A directional antenna pointed towards Crawfordsville, AR captures the UP's ATCS transmissions.

Under assembly in the museum, this cabinet housing a computer (server) and four radios now resides in the penthouse atop Central Station. Still to be installed: power supply and cooling fans.

The CAT5 cable was threaded through an attic, electrical closets like this on seven floors and thtough the ceiling of a hallway on the first floor. (The blue cable is ours) On November 13th , one of the

last tasks required to bring the server online was accomplished

by MRTM volunteers – establishing a internet connection.

Originally the plan called for connecting the server with the internet using an internet connection located in Don Weiss' office on the eighth floor. When it was discovered that Don's connection was not suitable, “Plan B” was put into effect.

“Plan B” was to use the museums internet connection. The museum was located on the first floor of the station some 115 feet below the penthouse. To connect the server to the modem in the museum, almost 300 feet of CAT5 cable had to be run.

As this is being written (November 15th) plans are for ATCS Monitor Midwest Territory Custodian Mark Loewe to arrive in Memphis the afternoon of November 30th to supervise “flipping the switch” on the Memphis server to bring it online. By then all the pieces should have been put together by the local volunteers and everything should work flawlessly upon start up.

(Good luck with that!) Regardless, it should be up an running by the time you read this or shortly thereafter.

The Memphis ATCS Monitor server is the result of many hours of work by a number of people, false starts, plans made and discarded, but about six months after the the original idea was presented to the MRTM Board of Directors, it has become a reality.

Initially a local electronic contractor was contacted to install the required hardware. After a number of on site visits, it was

obvious that we had to find a more cost effective alternative.

Someone suggested that we might contact the local amateur radio community.

Fortunately, there was a ham radio operator in our midst, Terry Cox. Terry stepped forward and along with help from other local ham operators took charge of installation of antennas, running of cables, etc. An added bonus, the ham radio community donated a lot of hardware (cable, connectors, lightning arrestors, etc) that otherwise would have to be purchased.

Mark Loewe and the ATCS Monitor group also contributed heavily to the project. The antennas (4), radios (4), computer, power supply and related cables and hardware were all donated to the cause by Mark and the ATCS Monitor group.

The rest of the tab was picked up by the MRTM and MRTM members. The cabinet, CAT5 cable, radio to computer interface, flat screen TV monitor and computer for museum display are just a few of the things provided by the museum and its members.

Much of the “heavy lifting� has been done by Steve Albers. In conjunction with Terry Cox, Steve constructed the mounting hardware for the two VHF antennas mounted on a mast formerly used by the Illinois Central Railroad. The railroad antenna is still mounted on the mast, making the array of antennas look like a trident. Steve also helped with fabricating the bracket for the UHF antenna and did the majority of the work mounting the radios, computer, power supply and cooling fans in the cabinet.

The ATCS Monitor Dispatcher's Display will incorporate both the UP (Wynne To Tower 17) and BNSF (just west of Harvard to Tennessee Yard)

“Fallen Flags� Business Cards

These business cards from "Fallen Flags" were accumulated over the years by Don Weis. A reminder of how the railroad industry has changed.

Parkway Industries (Zoom in to see Detail)

Parkway Industries

covered field.

By Tom Parker I-55 between South Parkway and McLemore passes through the heart of what used to be a very active and important part of Industrial Memphis Past. Although smaller in size than many other Memphis industrial areas, a number of the most well known companies in the country had facilities in Parkway Industries. Parkway Industries was established in the early 1920's and in its heyday must have been a beehive of activity.

The anchor on the west side of the complex was the Ford Memphis Assembly plant. It opened in 1924 and replaced a smaller facility that was located in Midtown Memphis which opened in 1913. Ford closed the plant in 1959. A portion of the plant was subsequently used by Slumber Products for he manufacture of mattresses. The site is now a debris

The old Ford site is across I-55 from Riverside Blvd. The overpass on the right was for rail access.

Site of Parkway Yard is now vacant land

Directly across Riverside Blvd. From the Ford Assembly plant was the Parkway Yard. The yard contained five tracks. Like the Ford site, it is now vacant land.

duction was for the Ford Assembly Plant. Later small bulbs such as bulbs for Christmas lights were produced here. In 1999 production was moved overseas and the plant was shut down.

North of the yard, just across Olive Street is the old General Electric Lamp Plant. A large part of their pro-

Access to the area was via tracks crossing Trigg Avenue and running behind the General Electric Plant.

Tracks in the complex were jointly owned by the Y&MV (IC), MP and Frisco and the industries were switched on a rotating basis by the three railroads in the same manner as President's Island.

International Harvester 237 West Olive Looking North from Olive Street.

Track running behind the G.E. Plant (left) provided access to the industries.

Looking South From Olive Street towards here the yard used to be.

Olive Street was the mainstreet of Parkway Industries. International Harvester had two facilities on Olive Street.

The larger was on the south side of the street at 237 East Olive and across the street was the Memphis Parts Warehouse at 300 East Olive. Just west of International Harvester on the south side of the street was a Western Auto Warehouse.

Other iconic companies having facilities in Parkway Industries included Pillsbury, Continental Can and Minneapolis Moline.

Doors at 237 West Olive, busted windows, door handles fashioned into IH logo.

237 West Olive Loading Dock

Former Western Auto Warehouse. International Harvester in Background

L to R – Former Western Auto, Minneapolis Moline, G.E. Lamp (background), McNees Sales and IH Parts Depot

CABOOSE

I C 9811 – Yeah – I got my model trains out again!

Meeting Schedule December 6, 2012 January 10, 2013 February 14, 2013 (All 2013 meetings will be on the 2nd Thursday of the month and all except the April & November meetings (TBA) will be at the Germantown Library) 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