March 2009 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 36, ISSUE 3

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MARCH 2009

Rail car on track for Tennessee Railroad and Trolley Museum for Memphis?

Letters to the Commercial Appeal Moews Park Mystery

Memphis Chapter Officers President – David Chase

dchase@memphisredbirds.com

Vice President – Bruce Smedley National Director – Bill Strong

williambstrong@bellsouth.net

Secretary – Oliver Doughtie

doughtio@bellsouth.net

Treasurer – Thomas Doherty

TRDoherty@aol.com

Librarian – Mike Pendergrass Publication Editor – Tom Parker

tscottparker@gmail.com

Last Month’s Meeting The meeting was called to order by Bill Strong who reported on an effort headed by Hugh Teaford and Mike Fleming of the Model Railroad group to establish a Railroad and Trolley Museum at Central Station. Plans of the Norfolk Southern to build a new yard at Rossville were discussed as well as the progress on the new BNSF ramp at Tennessee Yard. John Stefanac's program “A New York Central Retospective” included a narative by John about the New York Central, a display of NYC model trains, a video of early NYC trains and a video interview of his 92 year old father, John Anthony Stefanac, who began working for the New York City transit system in 1937 and rose to the rank of Chief of Operations and later helped with the implememtation of the Washington D.C. subway.

This Month's Meeting March's program will be “Electric Locomotives I Have Known (and Some I Haven't, a Very Subjective History of American Electric Traction” by Bruce Smedley. Bruce promises a much more interesting and less wordy presentation than the title indicates.

BUFF ONLINE: www.buff.illinoiscentral.net User Name:Member Password: Buff (Capital “M” & “B”) Cover Photo: Memphis' Central Station will be the future home of the Memphis Railway and Trolley Museum.

The station was built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1914 and presently houses the Amtrak Station, a police pricinct and upscale apartments.

Tom Parker Photo

Rail car on track for Tenn.

By William Croyle, photos by Patrick Reddy (Contributed by Michael Jack)

The Pullman railroad car Judge Milton Brown sits on tracks at the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati yard in Latonia. The car is scheduled to begin its journey to Jackson, Tenn., where it will serve as a studio for American Family Radio.

Reprinted with permission from the December 11, 2008, Kentucky Enquirer, December 11, 2008 (NKY.Com) LATONIA - After nearly 15 years here, Judge Milton Brown is moving to Jackson, Tenn.

"The Judge," as owner Ed Vieth calls it, is an 85-footlong, 75-ton railroad car that's been a fixture at the

Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati in Latonia since 1994.

It's going to become the studio home of American Family Radio, which broadcasts on three FM stations in and near Jackson, between Memphis and Nashville.

Vieth decided six years ago to

donate it to the nonprofit broadcasting company. It took American Family Radio six years, through grants and private donations, to raise the $52,000 to transport it there.

"It's bittersweet," said Vieth, a resident of Greenhills. "I'm happy that it's finally happening, but I won't be able to just come down and spend

who were friends of the Vieth family, used it to entertain guests.

"I remember being 3 years old in 1970 and sleeping in it," said Vieth. "I love trains model trains, traveling by train."

One half of the railcar has a narrow hallway with three double bedrooms and a compartment with seats and a table. The other half is open and was used to entertain.

As the owners of the railroad car aged, they gave it to Vieth in 1993. In 1994, he moved it to the museum, where it has been ever since.

Ed Vieth (right) discusses with Dave Moorehead the trucks of the Pullman railroad car Judge Milton Brown after the car was lifted by a crane.

time in my train car anymore."

credited with bringing the railroad to Jackson.

The Pullman railroad car was built in 1950 at a cost of $148,000. It was named after Brown, a Lebanon, Ohio, native who was president of the Mississippi Central & Tennessee Railroad Co. 185456 and president of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad 1856-71.

He was also a judge in Tennessee, served the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and was

It was one of only four railcars of that model that were made. It ran as a passenger car from Chicago to Mobile, Ala., through 1958, and from Chicago to St. Louis until 1969.

The Judge was taken out of commission in 1969 and purchased in 1970 by the owners of Eastern Machinery Co., Cincinnati. The owners,

With his family growing (Vieth and his wife now have four young boys), Vieth decided several years ago that it was time to give up the railcar. He did some research on it and Brown, which led him to Jackson. It was there that he found out American Family Radio was looking for new quarters.

"They said they would have to build a new building or do something different," Vieth said. "Well guess what?

They're going to do something different."

The railcar will be moved to Casey Jones Village in

"This is my first train," said Martin Sikora, managing director for Navis. But that didn't deter him from taking on the project.

"This is where a Ph.D. in science comes in handy," Sikora said with a smile.

Vieth said he's happy that the railcar will live on.

"There were two things about donating it to American Family Radio that I liked," Vieth said. "They would be occupying it, and it will be prominently displayed."

IRVIN B. COOPERMAN

Bill Slade, of Mideast Machinery Movers Inc., uses a torch to remove steam heat lines from the Pullman car.

Jackson, a square with shops and restaurants, Vieth said.

Disassembling of the railcar wheels began Wednesday. It will be hooked up to a tractortrailer cab, then a skateboardtype device will be attached underneath the back of the

railcar so it can travel along the highway. The rig will leave this morning on the 400-mile trip, which will take a couple of days.

It's being moved by Navis Pack and Ship Centers of Cincinnati.

Former Clerk for the Frisco Railroad and model railroader Irvin B. Cooperman passed away at his home Tuesday, February 10, 2009.

Mr Cooperman was born December 6, 1925 in Forest City, Arkansas and had been a speaker at Memphis NRHS meetings relating his experiences as a freight clerk with the Frisco.

Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum

By Tom Parker

This tunnel could house the Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum

A railroad museum in Memphis? If a group of local rail enthusiests have their way, it will become a reality. The

“Memphis Railroad and Train Museum Planning Task Force� spearheaded by Hugh Teaford and Mike Fleming in

Some museum pieces are already in place

Hugh Teaford and Architect Doug Burris evaluate the tunnel. The windows in the background open up to Main Street and may eventually become an entrance to the museum

conjunction with MATA, the owner of Central Station are takng the first steps toward making such a museum a reality.

When Central Station was built, tunnels were constructed under the tracks, running from the station to the Railway Express Agency near the other end of the complex. Six elevators connected the tunnels to the platforms above.

Architect Doug Burris checks out one of the shafts where elevators once carried baggage and express to and from the tracks above.

Baggage and express were carried to and from the trains through the tunnels.

One of these tunnels, some sixteen feet in width, will be home for the museum.

The task force is already busy putting things together. Organizational and conceptual plans are being made and evaluation of the facilities are underway. Plans include a model train layout (naturally) incorporating historic Memphis railroad scenes and historic artifacts.

High on the list of tasks to be done: "Clean Out Entire Tunnel"

MEMBERS' LETTERS TO THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL :

The upside of intermodal plan: Collierville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed a resolution opposing the building of a Norfolk Southern Railway intermodal facility near Rossville and suggested the facility to be built in Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park in southwest Memphis (Jan. 13 article).

These officials did not consider the many ways the Rossville intermodal facility would benefit Collierville citizens by reducing railroad traffic at grade crossings and noises from train whistles.

Intermodal trains now bring flatcars from the east to be unloaded and loaded and then

return to the eastern part of the United States. The trains pass through Collierville, Germantown and East Memphis to the intermodal facility at Forrest Yard on Southern near the fairgrounds, a distance of 20 miles with more than 25 grade crossings.

The Rossville intermodal yard would remove these trains from Shelby County.

Regarding any new intermodal facility in Pidgeon Industrial Park, the intermodal trains would still have to run between Rossville and Forrest Yard and would have to pass through Midtown Memphis where the intermodal trains do not run now.

Our Shelby County officials and municipal leaders in Collierville, Germantown and Memphis should consider how motorists and affected neighborhoods would benefit from

the proposed Rossville facility.

Instead of opposing its construction, our leaders should fully support it in any way possible.

Carl J. Schwerin Memphis 2/5/09

Moews Park Mystery

By Tom Parker

Correcting rail history: Your Jan. 25 Mid-South Memories column reported the 1884 introduction of a Pullman Palace (sleeping) car offering through service between Memphis and New Orleans on the Memphis and Tennessee Railroad. There never was a railroad of that name. The correct name is the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad.

The Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad, connecting Memphis with Grenada, was one of the original four railroads serving Memphis in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. This railroad was absorbed by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1886. This through sleeping car service still operates today on Amtrak’s City of New Orleans.

The original Memphis passenger terminal of the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad was at Main and Calhoun, where today’s Central Station stands.

RAILROAD MARKS CENTENNIAL Mayor Watkins Overton spoke and a centennial flag fluttered from its staff as the Illinois Central Railroad celebrated its 100th anniversary in February 1951 with a program in Moews Park, just west of Central Station. The line was chartered on Feb. 10, 1851.

(Commercial Appeal 2/17/09)

William B. Strong Germantown 2/2/09

The Above picture and article appeared in the Commercial Appeal's “Mid-South Memories” on February 17th. The loc-

Jack Meredith/The Commercial Appeal files

ation just west of Central Station belonged to the Illinois Central Railroad until sold to the Memphis Area Transit Au-

thority in 1995.

My earliest recollection of the property would have been in May of 1962 when I became an employee of the IC. At

that time it was the parking lot for the IC freight house at Main and Calhoun. It was also used for loading and unloading trucks; a loading dock

A 1965 picture of the area showing parking lot and loading dock. Photo from Mike Condren's website, contributed by Bill Pollard.

This photo, probably from the 1940's, shows the house tracks extending all the way to Calhoun Street.(From Mike Condren's website)

ran across the south end of the lot, abutting the freight house tracks on the other side.

Earlier photographs and maps show the house tracks extending all the way to the street, with no loading dock or parking lot.

Therein lies the mystery. This property was under the control of the Illinois Central from at least 1914 when Central Station was built until sold to MATA and was used by the railroad both prior to and after 1951 as part of their freight house operations.

What was the story behind part of the property being made into a park? How long did the park last? And who in the heck is “Moews�

Memphis Chapter NRHS receives $200.00 from MSMR The Memphis Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society has received a check for $200.00 from the Memphis Society of Model Railroads in appreciation for the Chapter's participation in the MSMR's exhibit at the Pink Palace Museum. Each year the Chapter is asked for items for display at the Museum. We have been remiss in not conveying this request to all the membership. Next time a special effort will be made to better publicize the event for more participation.

CABOOSE

Vacancies abounded last May as we stopped for lunch at Hobo's Inn at Elbe, WA. Elbe is located on the Mt. Ranier Scenic Railway, but unfortunately the MRSR operations did not begin for a couple of more weeks.

Tom Parker Photo Meeting Schedule March 9, 2009 April 13, 2009 May 11, 2009 June 8, 2009 July 13, 2009 August 10, 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.