THE MEMPHIS BUFF
VOLUME 36, ISSUE 1
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
JANUARY 2009
Car Repair Shed at Nonconnah Yards The “Panama Limited”, the “Memphis” and the “Gulfport” Pullman Cars
Memphis Chapter Officers President – David Chase
dchase@memphisredbirds.com
Vice President – Bruce Smedley National Director – Bill Strong
williambstrong@bellsouth.net
Secretary – Oliver Doughtie
doughtio@bellsouth.net
Treasurer – Thomas Doherty
TRDoherty@aol.com
Librarian – Mike Pendergrass Publication Editor – Tom Parker
tscottparker@gmail.com
Last Month’s Meeting Last month's program was a slide presentation “Passenger Service in and Around Memphis Before Amtrak” by Terry Foshee. Terry's presentation covered passenger service beginning with early wooden passenger equipment and progressed through the era of heavyweight all steel equipment and into the post World War II lightweight streamlined trains. Virtually all types of passenger equipment were represented including, coaches, observation cars, Railway Post Offices, dining cars, lounge cars, Rail diesel cars and passenger locomotives.
This Month's Meeting January's program will be a video presentation by Bill Strong covering the history of the former Illinois Central shops in Paducah, Ky. The presentation will cover both the Illinois Central era as well as the subsequent VMV “Paucahbilt”era. BUFF ONLINE: www.buff.illinoiscentral.net User Name:Member Password: Buff (Capital “M” & “B”) Cover Photo: Twin City Western GP20C 3516, May 22, 2008 at Minneapolis, MN. Originally CB&Q 901, the General Motors prime mover has been replaced with a Caterpillar diesel engine. Tom Parker Photo
Car Repair Shed at Nonconnah Yards, Memphis,Tennessee By O. W. Melin, Assistant Engineer, Building Department (From August 1917 Illinois Central Employees Magazine)
The Illinois Central Railroad completed last year at Nonconnah Yards, four miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, a car repair shed of sufficient size to take care of all car repair work done at that point, with the exception of light repairs requiring one day or less per car.
city of twenty-four cars each for the two old sheds. The old car repair sheds which were in the old car repair yard were of frame construction and covered four tracks each, the one shed being seventy-two feet by three hundred feet, and the other, seventy-six feet by three hundred feet.
The structure is entirely fireproof and covers over four and one-half acres, being 1,140 feet long and 176 feet wide. Eight tracks are covered, five of which were already in place and being used for car repair purposes without being covered. On a basis of fifty feet to a car, the capacity is twenty-two cars to a track or one hundred and seventy-six cars for the entire shed compared with a capa-
The building consists of a series of columns supporting a saw-tooth roof, with the teeth transverse to the structure in rows thirty feet apart. There are five columns in each row, placed forty- four feet center to center, with the tracks arranged in pairs between each pair of columns. The roof trusses are triangular in shape, conforming to the sawtooth and are spaced longitudinally between columns with
two intermediate trusses in each transverse space of forty four feet. The intermediate trusses are supported by transverse trusses placed in the plane of the steep side of the sawtooth. Knee braces are provided for all transverse trusses and for the inside longitudinal trusses in the planes of the columns. Structural steel girts are provided below the trusses on the two longitudinal outside rows of columns for the support of the corrugated siding. Expansion joints are provided at three different points in the length of the building. The steel columns are supported on concrete piers varying from four and one-half to five feet in depth. The roof is covered with fed-
eral cement tile supported on steel purlins placed four feet center to center and carried on the trusses. The gutters are filled with cinder concrete which with the gutter tiles is covered with a 5 ply composition roofing.
ing panes two feet wide and seven feet high horizontal mullions are avoided.
The steep side of the sawtooth is eleven feet one inch high, seven feet of which is covered with "United Steel Sash" glazed with one-fourth inch ribbed wire glass. By us-
with No. 20 black corrugated iron.
The sides of the building from a distance fourteen feet above the track and the ends above the clearance line are covered
An air connection was installed in each column of the outside and middle rows, giving many more outlets than is
usual, reducing the expense for labor, expense of maintenance, and the cost of additional length of hose necessary, if the spacing were greater. The ground area covered additional to that formerly used
for a car repair yard required sixteen thousand cubic yards of grading, which was entirely excavation. The material was removed by an American ditcher, loaded on cars, and
Plans for the new Johnston Yard show "Locomotive Facilities" at the site of the car shop. The plan calls for razing the old shop and building a new car shop between the Inbond Tracks and the Hump Classification Tracks.
Later plans relocated the new locomotive facilities to the east end of the old car shop.
provide the necessary drainage. Work was started on November 20, 1915, and completed May 23, 1916, the concrete foundations being built in ninety-nine days, steel erected in sixty days, and the tile roof placed in fifty-three days. A later view of the new Locomotive Facilities (warehouse in foreground)
disposed of on the Y. & M. V. R. R. with a portion being used for widening of fills and for flood protection work in the Memphis terminals. The excavation for the concrete piers supporting the columns was done by hand. The concrete mixing plant was located adjacent to the building and the concrete wheeled to the individual piers. There were one hundred and ninety-five piers which required four hundred and seventy-eight cubic yards of concrete. The structural steel was erected without interfering with the car repair work by means of platform derricks having sixty-foot booms and mounted on timber dollies rolling on skidways placed eight feet center to center. Two of these derricks were used, being placed in the line of the longitudinal row of columns and forty-four feet from the center line of the building. The erec-
tion was started at one end of the structure with the derricks backing away as the work progressed. The maximum reach of forty four feet was easily accomplished with the sixty-foot boom. The car repair work was interrupted only at that portion in the length of the building where the erection was in progress, as a clear space was necessary for the swinging of the boom. The transverse and two intermediate trusses of each bay were assembled on the ground and erected as a unit. The erection of the tile, glass and roofing did not interfere whatever with the car repair work. The fifty-two cars of roofing tile, four cars of glass, five cars of composition roofing and seven cars of cinder concrete material were hoisted by the use of a threelegged tripod on the roof purlins, a single hoist and two mules. Approximately two thousand feet of sewer was necessary to
The operation of the car repair yard was so efficient during the construction of this structure that there was a reduction in the number of badorder cars on hand instead of an increase as would naturally be expected. The speed in the construction was due largely to the co-operation of the local officials of the Transportation, Maintenance and Mechanical Departments. The track work, grading, pile driving, pipe laying, other than sewer work, moving buildings and miscellaneous work, was done by a B. and B. gang, assigned to this work. The structural steel was fabricated by the American Bridge Company and erected by Kelly Atkinson Company of Chicago, the foundations and sewers were placed by E. H. Walsh Sons of Memphis, Tenn., and the placing of the composition roofing, sheet metal work and painting was done by Nohsey & Schwab of Memphis, Tennessee.
The “Panama Limited” and the “Memphis” and “Gulfport” Pullman Cars By Tom Parker
The first “Panama Limited” was inaugurated on February 4, 1911, when the former “Chicago and New Orleans Limited” was renamed in honor of the construction of the Panama Canal, which opened for traffic in 1914. In 1916 it became an all sleeping car train featuring all steel sleepers, a diner, a club car and an observation car. It survived until May 28, 1932, when it was discontinued for economic reasons during the Great Depression. It was resrestored on December 2, 1934, with air conditioned cars and a new 18 hour schedule between Chicago and New Orleans. When the “Panama” was dieselized in on May 3,1942, the
two sets of new streamline lightweight equipment in-
cluded “tail cars” named “Gulfport” and “Memphis”.
Early view of the interior of the lounge/observation section of the “Memphis” or “Gulfport”. The cars were later redecorated and the bamboo/ rattan theme was replaced with more a New Orleans type decor featuring wrought iron, colorful wallpaper and drapes, and more comfortable reclining chairs.
lowed most of the cars to pass over the rail before it became displaced. Authorities later arrested James Edward Payne, a track worker for the Illinois Central who lived nearby. His stated motive was to rob the “rich folks” on the train.
The "Memphis" (or "Gulfport") at Hammond LA
The two cars' accommodations consisted of a drawing room, two double bedrooms, 2 compartments, a lounge with seating for 17 passengers, and an observation room with seating for 8. On the morning of July 14, 1942,a little over 2 months after entering service, the “Memphis” was involved in a major incident three miles north of Millington, TN near Kerrville when the three rear cars of the ”Panama” derailed. The “Memphis” overturned and plowed along the track for several hundred feet and plunged down a steep embankment on its side. The two cars ahead of the “Memphis”, the “Timberland” and the “Land o' Strawberry” derailed but remained upright. Six passengers were rescued from the overturned car. Sur-
prisingly, only four were slightly injured and none required hospitalization. Investigation revealed that spikes and tie bars had been removed from the track just north of a bridge over Bear Creek. Investigators speculated that it was the intent of the saboteur for the train to plunge into the creek, but the speed of the “Panama” al-
“Memphis” was returned to Pullman for repair. Initially Pullman wanted to scrap the car and replace it, but the War Production Board ordered it repaired and returned to service. Over two decades later, On the morning of July 5, 1965, the “Memphis” was involved in another serious accident. The southbound “Panama” en route to Memphis had overtaken a slower moving freight train just north of Halls, TN. The freight was too long to fit in the siding, so a maneuver called a “saw” was required to allow the passenger train to
The Siding at Halls, TN. The "Panama" was in the siding between the two mainlines. The freight was sitting on the Souhbound main (bottom track). When the "Panama" cleared the switch on the North (left) end of the siding, the freight train was to back up to clear the south end of the siding thereby allowing the passenger train to pass.
pass. The freight was ordered to stop on the southbound mainline just in the clear of the north end of the siding at Halls, TN. The “Panama” was to head into the siding and wait until the freight backed up enough to clear the switch on the south end of the siding, then proceed in front of the freight. Without warning, before the “Panama” was in the clear, the freight suddenly began backing up. The caboose crashed into the vestibule of the “Memphis”, the last car on the “Panama” that night and ripping a hole thirty feet long in the side of the car. The conductor, Jack O. Edwards of Memphis, who was standing in the vestibule supervising the “saw” was fatally injured and died in the hospital at Dyersburg, TN. Pullman Porter, Clarence W. Sutton of Chicago, IL, was also killed, dying before he could be extricated from the wreckage. The story circulating around the railroad immediately after the accident was that the engineer of the freight, taking the extinguishing of the passenger trains headlight as an indication the it was in the clear, began backing up before being given a signal from his conductor on the rear end.
Operating Rules state “Turn the headlight off when the train is stopped clear of the main track. However, an ex-
tinguished headlight does not indicate that a train is clear of the main track.” Evidently, the engineer over-
anything. The “Gulfport” remained in service a few years longer and was sold to Bobbie Thompson Farms in Thorton, MS in 1968. It was moved to Bee Lake, MS and made into a fishing “cabin” The “Gulf-
The "Gulfport" moldered in the Mississippi woods until 2005.
looked that last sentence. Contrary to some reports, “Memphis” was not cut up on sight. It was spotted some days later at Johnston Yard, the gash in the side covered with plywood, the patch painted orange and brown to match the rest of the car. Evidently the decision to scrap the car was made some time later and probably the cost of the repairs versus declining passenger revenues decided the cars fate as much as
port” moldered in the Mississippi woods until 2005 when it was sold to the Monticello Railway Museum at Monticello, IL. When refurbished, it will join the museum's fleet of ten other Illinois Central passenger cars.
Sources: June 2007 and December 2008 ICHS' “Green Diamond”, July 15, 1942 and July 6, 1965 Commercial Appeal.
CABOOSE
Winston Salem Southbound caboose 664. Photo taken at Wadesboro, North Carolina, 5/15/55 From the collection of Mike Pendergrass Meeting Schedule January 12, 2009 February 9, 2009 March 9, 2009 April 13, 2009 May 11, 2009 Meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month in the White Station Branch Library from 7-9 pm. 5094 Poplar Avenue Memphis, TN (in front of Clark Tower)
Contact the Editor Tom Parker 3012 Wood Thrush Drive Memphis, TN 38134 tscottparker@gmail.com
THE MEMPHIS BUFF welcomes contributions for publication. Copyrighted materials must contain the source. Original documents and photos are preferred for clarity. Enclose a SASE for the return of your materials. Articles sent via the Internet should be in Microsoft Word format. Photos should be JPEG files @ 72 dpi and at least 800x600 size. Consideration for a cover photo would require a much higher resolution. THE MEMPHIS BUFF is a not-for-profit publication for the Memphis Chapter of the NRHS. All credited photos herein are copyright by the photographer and may not be reused without permission.