Nostalgia & History > Southern's Piedmont Behind FP-7s

Southern Railway's Washington-Atlanta daytime schedule, Train No. 5, The Piedmont, is at Alexandria (Va.) Union Station on February 4, 1972.  Power is a foursome of FP-7s.

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

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Beautiful train. Thanks for posting this.
Bob

Also shows the original four-track configuration at the station (now only three) and, of course, no Metro yet. Why four locomotives? The train is probably going to add some piggyback traffic in a few minutes from Southern's Alexandria freight yard... which was taken out in the mid-1990s. 

I believe 6134 survived until 1979. Never got green.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/15 12:12 by ctillnc.

A wonderful image. A train the SOU had to keep running for a while. Thanks for posting.

A wonderful photo of a delightful train.  Yes, it added TOFC cars at Van Dorn Yard, a couple of miles south of Alexandria station.  The yard remains in service today, handling ethanol, I believe, for Norfolk Southern.  The TOFC cars were usually dropped at Greensboro, NC, Charlotte, NC, and Greenville, SC, before arriving in Atlanta.  It was just the opposite on the daylight trip northbound, departing Atlanta with a few TOFC cars, adding them at Greenville, Charlotte and Greensboro, and then dropping all of them at Van Dorn Yard for unloading or transfer to Potomac Yard.

At some point the train was cut back to Washington-Charlotte, and then it was discontinued entirely in 1975 or 1976, I'm not sure.

Really a great photo!  Beginning in May 1972, I had the privilege of riding this train on a number of occasions.
Thanks to knotch8 for a thorough explanation of the piggy back operations.
Beginning late 1972 or early 1973 they always ran the units with two facing in each direction.  This practice was the result of the Southern Crescent having a problem, south of Birmingham, with the lead unit.  Both trailing units were facing backwards.  The only engine available to get the train to a place, about 30 Miles away, where the other units could be turned was a switcher.  As a result of this situation, they then operated with two units facing forward.
Train was cut back to Charlotte on 6/1/1975.  Last run was on Tuesday, 11/23/1976.  To accomodate holiday travelers, they operated a "Thanksgiving Special" for five days, 11/24/1976-11/28/1976, on the Piedmont's schedule.
ALLEN  

In Photo #1, the lead engine has a cooling coil to the left of the radiator fans like the F-9s had. Is it safe to assume this was a late production FP-7 rather than a "-9" model?

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Unit delivered 1950 although it might have been modified later.

What is the consist, can anyone venture a guess?

railwaybaron Wrote:
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> What is the consist, can anyone venture a guess?

Train consist was five cars.
First two cars were baggage cars.
Third car is a heavyweight coach.
Fourth car based on roof-line appears to be the lightweight ss coach with a food/bar service facility normally in the consist.  TT noted that food/bar service was available Washington-Charlotte southbound and reverse northbound.
Fifth car based on roof-line appears to be another heavyweight coach.
February 4, 1972 was a Friday.  Three cars should have been adequate as this was not a heavy travel season.  Further, SOU had reserve coaches at depots along the line.   
ALLEN