November 2011 Memphis Buff

THE MEMPHIS BUFF

VOLUME 38, ISSUE 11

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

November 2011

Dues Notice Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum's Home Artifact Found In Tunnel

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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

The monthly meeting of the Memphis Chapter NRHS was held at the Germantown Community Library Tuesday, October 18th. Grayden Mazur presented a program on 2010 Rail Camp. For those in attendance this gave us all the chance to learn about Rail Camp from the attendee’s point of view.

Grayden cover a lot about the activities and adventures he experienced as a camper. Now that he is an alumnus of Rail Camp he cannot return as a camper but can as a councilor. The second part of his program was on traveling the western U.S. on a rail pass. He had interesting pictures sites along the way and the people he meet in his journey. Grayden presented an excellent program.

Mark your calendars next month’s meeting is on 11/10/11; Germantown Library; 7 to 9 p.m. “Salute to Veterans”

DUES It’s that time of year again; you’ll be receiving your 2012 dues renewal from national the early part of Nov. It is very important that you send your renewal to Tom Doherty NOT NATIONAL. If you send it to national it only slows the process down. They will deposit your check then cut a new check and send it to Tom to process. You will not be given credit for renewing until the chapter processes your renewal.

Our dues structure has changed this year and there may be a mistake on your renewal form. The renewal form is going to show chapter dues as $15 which is incorrect. Your local dues includes an electronic copy of the Buff Here is our current dues structure: National and Local membership Local Only Local with national affiliation with another chapter Family member Hard Copy of the Buff

$49 $25 $20 $5 $12

As an example if you and your wife belong to both national and local and receive a hard copy of the Buff your total dues are: $66.

Local only members will be receiving a bill from Tom by mid November.

Dues are payable by Dec 31, make checks payable to NRHS – Memphis Chapter. Any questions call Tom at (901)754-1674.

COVER: The old sign comes down as the MRTM takes possession of Suite 121 at Memphis Central Station.

Tom Parker Photo

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The Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum's Home

By Tom Parker

In late September, the Memphis Railroad & Trolley signed a lease with the leasing agent of Memphis' Central Station for the space known as Suite 121.

For the last several years the address had been occupied by More Space Place, a furniture store specializing in Murphy beds and custom storage solutions.

MRTM had already leased the space commonly known as the “freight tunnel” from MATA, the owner of Central Station. The tunnel, which measures sixteen feet in width and twelve feet in height extends some 700 feet (that's 11 ½ miles in HO) from Central Station to the former Railway Express office.

On October 1st, a team of Boy Scout's, and several MRTM members joined forces to get the space ready for occupancy.

Patching, painting and removing signage were the main priorities.

Because the tunnel space will

require extensive renovation before it can be utilized, emphasis has been placed on the storefront space, the aim being to get “Phase One” up and running as soon as possible (mid or late November target date).

the museums door measured thirty five inches between the jambs. This necessitated removal of the wheels and the stanchion on the front of the cart and hauling it through the doorway on it's side.

Partitions provide 10 separate display areas

Baggage cart is hauled through the door

A key to opening “Phase One” so quickly is that the existing space can be used with minimal modification. The previous tenant left partitions in place which effectively divides the space into ten display areas.

Many of the areas are carpeted and the partitions have numerous receptacles. One area is enclosed with glass walls and is a candidate for a future gift shop. A wrought iron gate, welded permanently in the up position, spans the entire area and will be used to mount various railroad signs, signals and other memorabilia.

The museum has its first display item. On October 15th, one of the baggage carts that had been stranded in the freight tunnel during Central Station's renovation was rescued, cleaned up a bit and set up in the museum space. It proved to be quite a chore as the cart was forty five inches in width and

Cart is reassembled in the museum space

Hours of work remain to be done, volunteers and contributions are sorely needed, but when you enter Suite 121 and the adjoining tunnel, you can already sense Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum and what it will become. Work days are advertised on the MRTM web page at mrtm.org and on Facebook. Come by and lend a hand or just see what's going on.

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Artifact found in Freight Tunnel

By Tom Parker

The time slip was found in this pile of trash. It is visible just to the right of the electrical box, mostly under the large brown envelope.

This interesting document from the past was found in the freight terminal at Central Sta-

tion. This time slip from April 16,1966 is for train porter C. Brown on his tour of duty on Illinois Central train the “Louisiane” from Chicago Central Station to Memphis Central Station. Curiously, he shows the train being number “4” when it was actually train number 3.

Number 4 is the northbound “Louisiane”.

Quite a bit of information is contained in the document. The lead engine was Illinois Central E-8 4025. Train departed Chicago 7:30PM, arriving Memphis 7:50 AM. Three train crews handled the train between Chicago to Memphis as evidenced by the three conductors' signature on the time slip C.R. See Chicago to Centralia (0252), N.J. Robinson Centralia to Cairo (252-361) and Freeman

Cairo to Memphis (361-J392).

The time slip was the method used by operating and train service employees all over the Illinois Central to report the hours they were on duty and was the basis for payment of their wages.

Each employee had his own pad of time slips and at the end of each tour of duty, he would fill one out in duplicate and send the original to the designated timekeeper's office and keep the duplicate in his time book. The slips would be accumulated, matched to the timekeepers records, any discrepancies noted and/or corrected, and forwarded to the accounting department in Chicago where the checks were prepared.

CABOOSE

MP Unknown Number El Patron Restaurant, Bartlett, TN Tom Parker Photo Meeting Schedule November 10,2011 (Thur.)

December 8, 2011 (Thur.)

New Meeting Location: 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