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locked Re: Southern Crescent Consists

Bill Schafer
 

Jason:

Heavyweight cars on the Southern Crescent were not common but not unknown. More common were the ex-CofG lightweights off the Nancy Hanks, City of Miami, and/or Man O’War. You’d likely see the heavyweights in service during heavy travel periods - Thanksgiving, Christmas for example. Attached are images of 2nd 1 passing through Norcross, Ga., on Thanksgiving Day, 1976. On this day, the first section was the short section and ran on time, protecting the schedule; the connecting cars from New York must have been late arriving Washington, so the New Orleans train ran as the second section. On the rear is a modernized heavyweight, which I assumed was in regular service. 

As for the two heavyweights on the rear in my March consist, there are three possible explanations - they are in regular service, they are deadheading to Hayne, they are on there for a special party. I didn’t make a note at the time, so really don’t know the answer. For modelers, I guess the message is that it’s perfectly okay to have a modernized heavyweight coach in the consist of the Southern Crescent. It most likely would be found on the front or the rear of the consist and you can make up whatever reason you want for its presence. 

—Bill







On Jul 5, 2020, at 19:24, Jason Greene <jason.p.greene@...> wrote:

Were the heavyweight coaches dead head or active? How common would they be on the Crescent?

Jason Greene 

On Jul 5, 2020, at 5:17 PM, Bill Schafer <bill4501@...> wrote:

Because there has been some recent interest in actual consists of the Southern Crescent in its glory days (1972-1979), I have consulted some of my old pocket notebooks and transcribed the consists of all the trains I rode in 1976. Turns out I made at least 30 trips on trains 1-2 that year, mostly on business. Attached is one of those consists. If there is sufficient interest, I will post more. 

On March 12-13, my wife and I rode train 2 from Atlanta to Alexandria, probably to visit my family over the weekend near Baltimore. We often boarded and detrained at Alexandria because it was near I-495, and if we could persuade someone to pick us up when #2 arrived, we would be at the family homestead before Amtrak 172, the connection to New York, left Washington. The logic was similar for catching #2 for the return to Atlanta. The consist would always be sizable leaving Atlanta on a Friday night because the northbound train was running through from New Orleans. Our return consist on Sunday night was often smaller because the train terminated in Atlanta. 

I know the attachment is hard to read. It is a PDF, so to make it more legible, click on it, open it, and enlarge it. 

—Bill Schafer



<1976 - Mar. 12-13 SOU 2 Atlanta-Alexandria.pdf>
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