January 2012 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 39, ISSUE 1

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

January 2012

Intermodal Traffic- By Tom Doherty Special Location For January Meeting

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.co

Minutes of the NRHS- Memphis Chapter December Meeting The first order of business was the election of officers for the 2012 year. The existing officers were re-elected for next year. They are: President Vice President Secretary/Treasurer Editor of “The Buff” Director Program Chair

Walter Lang Bruce Smedley Tom Doherty Tom Parker Bill Strong Don Weis/Carl Lancaster

The January meeting will be a Dinner Meeting held at Dino’s Grill at 645 N. Mclean (by Rhodes College) at 6 P.M. so we can dine then have our meeting on 10 Jan. Bring a friend interested in railroad new member are welcome.

A reminder 2012 dues are now due send your checks (made out to NRHS- Memphis Chap) to Tom Doherty.

This months program was on Colorado Railroading presented by Don Weis.

See you next month at Dino’s

Walt Disney World Monorail

3

Intermodal Travel

By Tom Doherty When we think of intermodal traffic on a railroad we tend to think of freight traffic. What about people intermodal traffic? We don’t tend to think along these lines when it involves moving people, although the imaginaries at Disney World (WDW) sure do!

If you look at the Disney World transit system it meets any definition of an intermodal system but instead of goods it’s people. The Disney system involves buses, a standard gage railroad, boats, ships, monorail and even airlines. This system moves hundreds of thousand of people every year. While we as an organization tend to concentrate on railroading lets take a look at this integrated system.

First we need to address the airline operation; Disney doesn’t actually operate an airline but as part of their integrated system they partner with several airlines to ease people into their park operation. If you are staying at a Disney Hotel and have booked their bus transfer from Orlando International to WDW prior to your departure from home you’ll receive yellow baggage tags stating your name, hotel, and vacation dates.

When you get to your departure airport and check your bags, with the yellow tags on, you no longer have to worry about them as the WDW system will handle it. When you arrive at Orlando you just head to the next part of the WDW Transit system by taking the Disney Magical Express from Orlando to your hotel. Disney takes your bags and delivers them to your room.

These buses are over the road inter-

city buses, just another step in their intermodal system. Once you’re at WDW the rest of their transit system unfolds before you. The objective is to move you quickly and effortlessly to wherever you wish to go within WDW. So let’s break down each of these elements of their system.

Boats & Ships: There are several types of boats used to carry people about the complex. There is the

small “Water Taxi” that holds a few people and generally travels short distances. These boats are designed to look like the African Queen. There are the shallow draft “River type” passenger vessels that move people around future world in Epcot and between some of the hotels and various parks. These boats hold a larger number of people and are enclosed.

A slightly larger vessel looks like the boats used on the Adirondack lakes in the 1930s. Again these move people from some of the hotels to the indi-

vidual park areas. The largest boat is the ferry boat that moves people from the ticket and transportation center (TTC) to the Magic Kingdom. They resemble the ferry boats of New York City or Seattle Puget sound. All these boats are designed to expedite people without adding traffic to the highway system.I mentioned ships; while WDW doesn’t operate ships at

the resort the Walt Disney Company does operate a cruise line. Using their over the road bus system you can travel seamlessly between either the airport or WDW and the departure port. While not necessarily part of my intermodal concept it is interesting to note how they integrate this type of travel into their system.

For the standard gauge railroad we need to remain in the Magic Kingdom. This appears as a ride attraction but serve a duel purpose. The rail-

4 yard but not in plain sight. While traveling the monorail just outside the TTC you’ll see the switch interconnecting each monorail and the track leading off to the maintenance area.

Each train set remains intact as a unit.

road circles the entire Magic Kingdom Park and gives people the opportunity to travel on a steam train. So much for the “ride” portion of it; it also allows people to move from the entrance of Magic Kingdom (at Main Street) to Frontierland thusly avoiding the crowds within the park and providing a means to get to the rear part of the Magic Kingdom quickly

objective is to get people where they want to be without them driving themselves. With the number of quests that WDW has if everyone took their own car to go from place to place it would make any large cities rush hour traffic seem light! WDW has the flexibility to alter buses to fit their needs and the demands of the day. What an urban transit planners dream.

There are three monorail systems within the WDW operation. The Magic Kingdom System and the Resort System run parallel to each other.

The Magic Kingdom line runs from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom to complete its’ loop it runs through the resort hotels of Grand Floridian, Polynesian, and Contemporary. It doesn’t stop at any of these. The parallel loop, the Resort Monorail, runs from the TTC to the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, and Contemporary. The third system runs from the TTC to Epcot and return. All three systems allow for transfers at the TTC. These trains can run up to 40 mph and there is room in the operator’s compartment for passengers to ride.

and comfortably.

The buses: these are regular low profile city buses and they connect all parts of WDW on a well-developed and maintained highway system. The

Lastly it’s the monorail. This system uses twelve train sets that can carry 300 passengers each. Each set is identified by a color strip down its side and the operator will refer to it by this color i.e. Monorail Red. Just like a railroad there is a maintenance

All the WDW system can accommodate handicapped passengers. It the course of a stay at WDW you can easily ride all types of transportation modes.

While it may not be usually referred to as an intermodal system it doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch to view it as such. So hop on board, the rides great.

5

Special Location for January Meeting

The Illinois Central Railroad's Only Hudson

The January 2012 meeting of the Memphis Chapter, NRHS will be on Tuesday, January 10th at Dino's Grill, 645 North McLean. The meeting will be at 7:00 PM, but the meeting room will be available at about 5:30 PM, so all members are invited to come early and enjoy dinner at Dino's before the meeting.

"The Five Titans" by Adolph Presler. Taken June 1, 1937, the IC commissioned photograph, which was staged, represented the five Illinois Central merchandise trains that left Chicago each evening.

By Tom Parker

Back in the 1930's, the Illinois Central ran a fleet of five merchandise trains from Chicago every evening. The trains were MS-1, Train No.61, Chicago to Memphis; CB-9, Train No. 75, Chicago to Birmingham; CS-7, Train No. 63, Chicago to St. Louis; SY-2, Train No. 89, Chicago to Indianapolis/Cincinnati on the Big Four; and CW-1,

Chicago to Omaha. MS-1, incidentally, was called “The World's Fastest Freight Train� in a contemporary Railway Age article. MS-1 made the 527 mile trip between Chicago and Memphis in 13 hours.

As these trains grew longer and heavier, the 4-6-2 Pacific's that were used to pull them began

IC 1 - The Illinois Central's only Hudson

having trouble maintaining the schedules. Today you can just add another diesel or two to handle a heavy train, but in the Steam Age all you could do was get a bigger engine.

Seeking a solution to this problem, the Illinois Central decided as an experiment to convert one of its Berkshire (2-8-4) engines into a 4-6-4 Hudson. IC 7038, one of 50 Berkshires purchased by the IC from the Lima Locomotive Works in 1926 was selected for the project.

Among other alterations, the

four 63 inch drivers were replaced with three 73½ drivers and the 4 wheel pilot truck was replaced with a 2 wheel truck.

While the overall height was unchanged at 15' 8½'', the centerline of the boiler was 5 inches higher, resulting in a higher center of gravity.

The conversion was not successful. IC 1 proved to be “slippery”, i.e., the locomotive produced more power than could be transferred to the rails and the wheels were prone to slip.

The higher center of gravity

caused the engine to be top heavy and it was prone to derail.

In 1939, John McIntyre, Road Foreman of Engines at Clinton, IL, tried to alleviate IC 1's slipping problems by changing the weigh equalization on the drivers and did achieve some improvement. During the same period, the cylinder size was reduced to 24 inches.

IN 1945, it was renumbered IC 2499 and assigned to passenger service between Louisville and Fulton Ky. It was retired in 1949 and scrapped in 1951.

IC 2499, Paducah, KY, October 8, 1946. Photographer unknown, Tom Parker collection.

IC 2499, Paducah, KY, October 8, 1946. Photographer unknown, Tom Parker collection.

IC 2499, November 27. 1949, Paducah, KY, Bruce Meyer Photo, ICHS Collection

CABOOSE

“The caboose shot was taken off Cannery Row in Monterey, CA. I assume it is an old SP wooden caboose.

Judging from its appearance, it may be a drovers Caboose. The bike path in front of it used to be the former right of way of the branchline from Watsonville to Monterey, which at one time extended all the way to Pebble Beach. The tracks were still in place in 1986 at the location the photo was taken. Some sections close to Pebble beach still had their rail in 1990.� Photo and description by Walter Lang Meeting Schedule January 10, 2012 Dino's, 645 N. McClain 7to 9 PM February 9, 2012 Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum, 545 S, Main, Suite 121 7 to 9 PM

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