Nostalgia & History > Southern Crescent leaving Slidell,La

7-04-76
On the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence the 13 car southbound Southern Crescent is at and leaving Slidell - the last stop before New Orleans.
One of the rebuilt heavyweight coaches was in the consist (second car back).
The Southern operated two domes and this day it looks like 1613, a a dome-coach built by Pullman Standard in 1958 for the Wabash was being used.
It later went to the N&W, Central of Georgia and then the Southern in 1971.
It was used on the Asheville Special and occasionally on the Southern Crescent when their other dome (1602) was in the shop.
Here are a few inside shots of this car ------------------
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5074594,5074594#msg-5074594

A couple of these images are a repost but reworked them.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/22 06:37 by gcm.

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First-rate photos to gladden the heart of a passenger train fan.
Bob

Great photos, looks like you had company as some fellow railfans seemed to be running to get a shot of the head end.

Rich

Great shots. Gary!

RC Lundgren

McComb, MS based passenger ytrain crews worked Macomb-New Orleans-Canton-Macomb.  Macomb based engine crews worked to and from New Orleans.

The Southern Crescent, what a class act so late in the passenger train game . Thanks for sharing your fine slides, Gary .

I'll bet those V-12s sounded good getting the train moving.

Andy

Thank you for posting these awesomes shots.  It was nice to see the heavyweight coach behind the bagg-dorm.  Hayne Shop did their usual great job in rebuilding these from heavyweight Pullmans.  Many were ex-Crescent veterans anyway.

What do those red signs on the side of the E-units say?

njmidland Wrote:
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> What do those red signs on the side of the E-units
> say?

17 different decals on all 17 Southern E units showing 17 signers of the Declaration of Independence - I believe all were southerners.
Gary

 

An especially nice series taken on a momentous day. I really like the styling of the heavyweight coach.
Thanks for making another outstanding posting.
ALLEN

> Macomb-New Orleans-Canton-Macomb.  Macomb based
> engine crews worked to and from New Orleans.

You're thinking IC. This is Southern and I believe crews worked Meridian-New Orleans.

Dirty diesels, no markers of any kind on the read end--at least on the exterior not exactly the vaunted "class act" it's so often made out to be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/22 07:15 by kurtarmbruster.

kurtarmbruster Wrote:
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> Dirty diesels, no markers of any kind on the read
> end--
The plastic red flag is hanging on the rear gate of the rear car.  That's what we used on my division of the Southern in the daytime.  By night we would use a burning Adlake red kerosene lantern switchlocked to the rear gate, unless the rear car had  its own markers.  When I first started firing on the Southern Crescent in 73, we still kept a burning red lantern in the nose of lead engine for front end flagging.  As for the engines, they may have some road grime on them; but they still look classy with their vintage sylvan green/imtation aluminun paint scheme complete with nose monogram and Southern Crescent name on the nose.  Contrast that with the patch painted mult-colored Amtrak E-units I previously fired on the Amtrak Florida trains.

I remember the red flag on the rear of number 5's rear coach leaving Alexandria station. The flag disapeared when we reached Van Dorn Street yard. I used to love watching out of the back door when the pigs were added to the rear of number 5 at Van Dorn Street. Do you have any memory of how the FP-7s, and  E-8s were washed at Pegram Shops in Atlanta?  Was it done by hand; or did they have a machine? 

During my years as trainmaster at Atlanta, I never made it out to Pegram sadly. When I worked at the SCL Hamlet Diesel Shop, each engine was manually brush washed once once a year .  That was done during the more comprehensive annual inspection.  After going through the fuel pit at Hamlet, the sets of engines went back and forth through the wash racks  next to the fuel pits. This was done except when the engines were badly needed back on the road or when the temperature was way below freezing.  E's and F's can take water in the engine rooms during the wash rack trips because of the upper side grillwork openings, so we did a more quick wash with them.  The ex-Southern paint shop at Chattanooga recommended using Dawn dish washing soap in brush washing engines painted with the newer Imron paint.  That's what I used on occasions when I needed to wash the 4610 for display.

Thanks for the reply. It never occurred to me about Es-Fs taking water into the air intakes while going through a wash rack; but it makes perfect sense. I do recall my dad telling me one night at dinner when I was in eighth grade, that he had seem 'my train" (number 2) in Alexandria that morning. He said the engines were dirty; no wonder-this was February of 1978. My dad's office was not far from the RF&P station in Alexandria. He saw the trains more than I did, but he always gave me reports. It also stands to reason that a wash rack would not be able to accomplish much on the noses of trailing cab units. If 6905 had previously made several trips as a trailing unit, that could explain a dirty nose. Thanks also for the information on 4610. I only once caught a fleeting glimpse of it headed south leaving Lynchburg, Va. It looked great even from far away.