CHARLESTON AIR VIEW 24 Mar 2011 I have really enjoyed - reliving my younger days, tracing out the various rail lines in the air view of the Charleston area. The times in and around all those areas I had walked to, rode my bike to see the trains and taking the SCEG bus ride from Waylyn, to Market Street and then walk down to E. Bay to the docks area, old Union Station, etc. It would have been nice to have had a camera to record pictures of that time. At least, I have been able to share the memories with others here on the forum. Should that time period was today, I can almost hear the 6:00 PM TV news person leading off with a 'wild' story that two young persons were found wamdering around the docks... . A quick side note. The MTH Seaboard Air Line F-3, A-B-B-A units should arrive shortly on the SCRS. Larry @ SCRS
Amen. Guess that both of us were very lucky to have seen and experienced rail activity around Charleston at the time we did. While the Southern had a line to the west/north since 1834, the ACL didn't tie in with the former Plant System lines until ~1900 and the SAL didn't open the EC until Dec. 31, 1917. Until 1918 the only real rail attraction in Charleston would've been the presence of an awful lot of steam. Thank goodness for the period 1918-1967. For my money that was the absolute pinnacle of railroading in this area and I was fortunate enough for that final quarter century to observe it. As per usual, the model manufacturers plan on releasing an inordnate amount of SAL and FGEX stock between April and September this year. Red Caboose 1932 ARA cars in April, Intermountain the aforementioned FT-A&B sets in SAL (want a Southern set also, but ...) in May/June, also 1937 AAR in SAL - June. Accurail, two new style reefers, both in multiple numbers for FGEX, still no date. Then Intermountain again with "Our Companies" reefers promised for September/October. Of course, yours truly will have to sample at least some or all of the above.
WEB SITE: ABANDONED RAILS Has anyone been in contact wih Greg at the web site "Abandoned Rails"? Several months ago I sent him my few extant photos of the SAL's EC line, so far they've not been added to his site. More recently I've attempted to send him e-mails asking if he could superimpose on his maps the relationship of the EC line to the Croghans branch and the Yonges Island branches. The e-mails come back with an error message. Buddy Hill, think you had the last contact when you sent info on the Yonges Island branches - have you heard from him recently?
Dave - I posted my info directly to the website and had no contact with the gentleman mentioned in your email.
Buddy - Thanks. Didn't think about doing it that way, guess he proofs the info before he pyblishes it. Hope he's not sick or anything like that.
Most of these posts to date have concerned the physical layout and equipment of the 3 railroads that serviced Charleston up until 1967. An exchange of pm's with another forum member caused me to recall one of the many reasons why the now gone Seaboard Air Line remains so fondly in my mind. When I returned from California in the early 1960's I was very much a fan of, and had started to model the Southern Pacific. An encounter on a two-lane secondary road with three of SALs' then new GP-30's at speed, rekindled my earlier liking and respect for the road. Needless to say I started paying a lot of attention to where the SAL crossed U.S. Hwy. 17. Since an uncle of mine at various times owned service stations on two corners of where Wappoo Rd. crossed 17, a place to park and observe was very handy. Since my uncle typically closed at 9 p.m. (just before the rail action really started), I was often parked at his station. Consequently I became well acquainted with Highway Patrolmen and both County and City police. In any case, a very nice gentleman (believe you would class him as being REALLY old school) worked in the down-town office of my first private employer. He was a trolley buff and he knew of my interest in railroads. One Friday morning delivering the company mail we got to talking about my newest project - to paint several F-7's in the SAL scheme. I told him that I had the air brush, the decals, and the unpainted F-7's, but I was trying to get a perfect match for the SAL colors. His reply was "why don't I call my friend at SAL and see if we can get you the real mccoy." My thought was "Oh yeah, that's going to happen." In any case, the following Tuesday morning when I walked into his office, there on his desk was quite a lot of SAL's Pullman green and lesser amounts of the other two colors. He told me that the paint arrived in Cooper yard with the conductor of train #80 Sunday afternoon. Now, let's see; 2nd person is someone at SAL's Savannah shops, 3 people is the guy who took it to their yard in Savannah, the 4th person is the one who handed over to #80's conductor, who is the 5th person who delivered it to the 6th person at Cooper Yard who handed it to person #1 and 7 - the gentleman who worked in Seaboards' freight station. So there, 7 or more people took time from their jobs to get delivery of paint to a young guy who they didn't know - except he was a fan of their railroad. Charlie Paul - The first time i've related your kindness and R.I.P. P.S. That two-lane secondary was Stinson Drive.
18 May 2011 On this link are some pictures of a production model of the MTH SAL F-3's. This is a 1/4 scale hi rail model. Just scroll down and you will see four pictures. Hopefully the one's I pre-ordered will be in next month. I remember seeing these a number of times (without B units) passing through Charleston and elsewhere. Larry @ SCRS Weekend Photo Fun 5-13-11-?? - Topic
Wow. Nice looking units and - opening doors. Bet you could almost fit one of those mini-TV cams in that cab. Very nice I'm sure you'll enjoy running those units on your layout. I'm in that same boat. Waiting for the SAL FT-A/B sets promised for "June/July." Unfortunately it appears as tho' Red Caboose's 1932 ARA cars in SAL will arrive at the same time along with the Fox Valley M-53's, the Accurail reefers and some other stuff I really, really want. Well I've been assured all my life that you can't take it with you ... .
Louis D. Rubin If you've enjoyed reading about Seaboard Air Lines' #25/#26, the "Boll Weevil" in this thread You'll will likely enjoy reading about this train @ http://www.vqronline.org/1979/spring/rubin-boll-weevil. These excerpts cover his experiences with the "Boll Weevil" in combination with other railroad items during his teenage years in Charleston. He skillfully weaves these accounts into a poignant story why, in common with another southern writer, "you can't go home again." Perhaps the reader will, like myself, feel the same sentiments - except for the dates and locations.
Chestatee - It apparently no longer takes one direct to the article. I just tried it and the link I gave will take you to the VQR page and if you'll look on the line where ir reads "magazine," "subscription." etc. and type in the words 'boll weevil' it'll take you directly to a series of articles including Mr. Rubins.
After many months away from this site, I decided to drop in and catch up. I am floored with the map that was submitted by SCRS (I believe) and have spent the last hour on the 1957 view, I found it all, using Stono Park Elementary as the point of reference. My familly and I moved to Cross Street in the soon to be developed Rotherwood Estates in 1958 such that I could attend Stono Park. As luck would have it, my grandfather, after many years with the ACL, was the conductor on the Croughan Line. As previously stated, when we moved in, we would often see his train as it went back and forth from Albermarle Point to Jericho. The train would work a siding at Wapoo Road and we would "chat" with him while the crew worked. I remember it as if were yesterday. This has been a wonderful experience, participating in this ongoing conversation, and at age 59, it is a treat to see where I grew up as well. I have "flown" all over the area from my house to Hwy 17, the SAL crossing at DuPont and the packing sheds on the west side of the crossing, its just as it was. Thanks.
falcon468 - Welcome back. Yes, I did the 1957 aerial view and the one on "Abandoned Rails" and the only thing I can say is "Ya shoulda been here when it was mostly farmland." I'm still off-balance from the number of houses and people they've managed to stick in that comparatively small area.
Larry @ SCRS - Was just re-reading parts of this thread and ran across your post in re. the SAL F-3s' the SCRS was looking forward to acquiring. Just wondering if you had acquired them, how they run, etc. Same for those GP-7s'. InterMountain has set delivery for their SAL FTs' back to October while Athearn has advanced delivery of their 4 SAL GP-9s' to October. That'll be a budget buster month! Then, Athearn has announced 3 new numbers for their SAL GP-35s' so I'll end up with 5 of those, well a brace of 3 for fast freights with 2 left over to mix with GP-30s', etc. Meanwhile my additional inserted 1/3rd of mainline on the Charleston Subdivision finally has all the kinks ironed out. I've started some operation around Local #66, one or two northbound extras (lots of FGEX reefers there) and the northbound "Boll Weevil", #25. My next "big" project is lighting so I can replicate at least part of SALs' northbound fleet at night.
F-3'S AND GP-7 03 Nov 2011 Hello Dave. Yes. The F-3 A-B-B-A's and the GP-7 did arrive. They were pressed into freight service almost as soon as they were serviced. I had two SAL cabs that have been waiting to be coupled onto Seaboard freights for some time. Both are now in operation. One at the rear of a northbound express 'reffer' string pulled by the F-3 A-B-B-A's and the other on a southbound local pulled by the single unit GP-7. MTH's 2012 V1 catalog has the ACL GP-9's listed - purple, gold and white - to be issued in May 2012. Three will be headed for the Southern Coastline Railway System. ACL cabs are waiting. Larry @ SCRS
Larry - Good to hear from you. Well the I-M FT sets have been pushed back to Jan. 2012 so the "October Meltdown" was only partial. Of course during the same month I-M issued 3 different variations of FGEX reefers and the Fox Vally M-53's also arrived. Thanks to I-M and re-painting and decalling some old Train Miniatrure reefers, I'm able to put forth a real good looking perishable express. As noted in another post, the Genesis GP-9s also arrived. After listening to the shellacking these units took on other forums, I started to have doubts about my order. Close-up photos showed some small variations from the prototype, but then again I understand that all GP-7/9s seem to have some minor faults and so ... glad I did. They match up real nice with my P2K GP-7/9's. My P2K ACL GP-7s will begin to be used when I start my 16 or 24 hour clock as power for the "night" man on the Terminal RR.
17 November 2011 Remember these. The MTH ACL GP-9's - Purple, White and trimed in Gold. http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-20203-1 Larry @ SCRS
Larry, sure do. Purple & silver geeps Monday through Friday down the Croghans Branch and then back up the line. Every day during summer vacation or school holidays, normally down about 9:00 a.m. and back up before noon. Always two units. Until 1957. Then the "black marias" began to show up. By 1960 the purple & silver was (to my best knowledge) just about gone from Geeps. I got two of these when they were offered by P2K 5-10 years ago, one of which my B2W managed to put on a hardwood floor, Project #9,651. Needless to say I've "petitioned" just about every model loco manufacturer to make their GP-7s in the "black maria" scheme. Guess I'll hit up Athearn again about their Genesis GP-7. My black & yellow F-2A looks real good m.u.'d with the P&S Geep, a P&S FP-7 would look just as good with a brace of B&Y Geeps.
Back in the day... We would have known each other if you hadn't gone to St. Andrews and weren't a day or two older. My dad, who was a generation older than my mom and a Westerner, was also a big train enthusiast and took me, and later both his grandsons, on many a sight-seeing trip to see the trains. I remember the Magnolia Theater on 17 and when there really was a dairy and cows back behind Byrnes Down. We live out Bees Ferry now and I still hear the trains on a quiet night. I've ridden under the train trestle in a boat at low tide just outside of Hickory Hills and ridden the passenger train from Charleston to Florence, when it was safe for a child to go from her parents' arms at one end to her grandparents' arms at the other. My dad would take us to see trains, but he always talked about a steam engine he saw as a child or young man they called "Big Boy" in the west and said nothing could compare. The same time your dad was working for WESTVACO in transportation, our neighbor in Ashley Hall Manor was working in the engineering department. Houston Kaiser built our houses, but I know the same cabinet-maker did the kitchens in Ashley Hall Manor and Rotherwood and Sandhurst and Northbridge Terrace and Lenevar and on and on. (I hate to confess how old I was before I realized "Lenevar" was "Ravenel" spelled backwards.) His name was Westbury; the last bridge going over to Folly Beach is named for him. He seemed an old man to me when I was three in 1963, but he was still building cabinets until 1989 when Hugo destroyed his shop, and he died shortly thereafter. The WESTVACO engineer came to run two of their plants in Brazil before he retired to Maryland. I grew up with Mac Rivkin's sons, and when the younger becomes Secretary of the Treasury, I'll be able to say "I knew him when he was four and taught me to play chess." I was twelve. It never occurred to me that the relatively new neighborhood, Croghan's Landing, was named for anything to do with the railroad and it is to my shame that I didn't think it was a loss when they made bike paths where trains used to run. Today they say "If you got it, a truck brought it" but it is at the cost of the railroads.
Nighauel - Knew both Mr. Kaiser (sold him building supplies) and Mr. Westbury, but him tangentially through another friend. I worked at the Magnolia in 1958/59. And I remember St. Andrews Shopping Center before it was built, with Coburg's dairy behind it. You live on the "new" Bees Ferry road (friends and I refer to it as the "Developers Relief Highway"). The original Bees Ferry ran right up against the ACL right of way on its' eastern side through bottom land/swamp. Knew it real well 'cause my dad would take me with him to gather wild violets to plant in our yard. Know your iniial inquiry was to Falcon468, but I don't think too many of the posters to this thread pay much attention to it anymore. In any case - welcome.
