Railroaders' Nostalgia > My Dumb Luck: the AFT years 19

19 North Little Rock AR Apr 13-15 / Memphis TN Apr 17-22

The run from St Louis to Little Rock was down the Missouri Pacific with their two Bicentennial GP's (mostly in tow, I'd guess). The display site was in a residential area at a park that was mostly given over to Little League diamonds.
For some reason Little Rock presented Mad Dog with a caged pig. A curious local custom? I don't know- it isn't mentioned in any AAA publication.

From Little Rock it was back up the MP the way we came in, then swinging right at Bald Knob towards Memphis. (I'm pretty sure there's hidden meaning in that sentence)

Memphis was another extraordinary site. They put us in a parking lot alongside the Mississippi River near Mudd Island. To solve the obvious problem (city parking lots don't usually have RR track) they poured out a line of red dirt and laid panel track! Even more interesting: access into the parking meant crossing a major Memphis thoroughfare that couldn't be blocked for the 7 days we'd be in town. So once the train was backed in, the temporary grade crossing was pulled up and we were cut off from the Illinois Central main across the boulevard. It was all well planned and executed- bravo!

Photos 1&2

Here's something else a bit different about Memphis- they (the Memphis Fire Dept?) had an antique fire pumper. It was rolled into place, fired up, and used to fill the 4449's tender!

Photos 3&4

Craig (4449 Crew) had a friend that had flown into Little Rock, and needed to get back there to fly back out. This meant about a 5hr round trip, mostly at night, and I went along to share driving. I'd drive west, and Craig would drive back.
What could go wrong?
I was jolted awake in the back seat by Craig's cries of anguish (such language!). The car was bathed in red light. “Jeez Craig, what did you do?!”
The patrolman asked us to step out of the car and wanted to see the registration. Craig dug the paperwork out of the glove box: the car belonged to the FBI!
Okay, you've seen a few pictures of us by now- Craig's the one you all thought looked like Ron Burgundy and I was all hair (trust me-God got the last laugh on that). This Arkansas patrolman had pulled over two California boys driving an unmarked FBI car. Did he think we were under cover? (Not quite Starsky & Hutch. Maybe Starsky & Serpico?) It's hard to imagine what he was thinking.

Although, he did offer us a hint: Craig got a $30 speeding ticket.

SR Bush
Dutch Flat

BTW: PalmDale (Operations) wants everyone to know that there was a drop-off just below the Memphis site near the river where even a novice golf cart jockey could “get air”. (I guess the “Lessons of Turn 6” were too subtle for our lot)

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AMF would have been proud of the durability and hang time of their carts. Floating.........not so much :)

"They definitely float,
But they don't float indefinitely"
Old ad copy for VW in the 60's

Posted from iPhone

This was definitely one of the more oddball display sites, being cutoff from the world, but a fun place nevertheless.

Apparently the same thing was done in Pomona (panel track) but that was a few weeks before you & I hired on.
However, I don't know if the connection was broken while the train was on site, like Memphis.

Posted from iPhone

SR...I remember that night very well. I was doing 75 in a 65 mph zone as was everyone else. When he pulled us over with that "Smokey the bear police hat", all I could think about was those Chrysler ads of the day when the police officer says...Boy, you in a heep of trouble. When i pulled out the registration I thought it might be registered to the General Services Administration or something like that. Just our luck, registered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Memphis. Now this patrolman knows we aren't FBI Agents just by looking at us. Those California drivers licenses didn't cut it. I always thought he figured he just caught a couple of guys with our pictures on every post office wall as fellons who might have ambushed some poor FBI agent. If memory serves me (and it doesn't always anymore), you explained about us being employees of the Freedom Train and how we came by the car (I'll let you tell that story some other time). This officer remembered something about the train in Little Rock and let us go. It did cost me 30 dollars which I mailed a money order back to some county in Arkansas in the envelope I received from him. It was an incredible ride that we had...glad you are telling the story...Craig

Normally we got new GM loaners from the local dealer (a result of GM's AFT sponsorship) but this car was a somewhat older Plymouth Satellite or Dodge Coronet, something like that. It struck me as slightly curious, but not a big deal.. I sure NEVER would have guessed FBI!

The fun part of writing these stories is that I don't have to make stuff up! (I just have to remember it...)

Posted from iPhone

The Memphis FD steamer was the "E. H. Crump" and the department traveled with it as a goodwill ambassador to various FD events, much the same as various railroads have used steam locomotives.

Posted from iPhone

The Memphis FD steamer was the "E. H. Crump" and the department traveled with it as a goodwill ambassador to various FD events, much the same as various railroads have used steam locomotives.

Posted from iPhone