Old Southern Crescent Consist Question

[Bill Haithcoat]

OK, I just have to add the following -- it's the verbatum description from the timetable of the Southern Crescent's Master Room:
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ONE OF A KIND!

LUXURY FOR TWO!!

COMFORT FOR THREE!!!

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The Southern Crescent offers a Master Room accommodation daily in each direction between Washington and Atlanta, the only premium accommodation of this type in regular service on any passenger train in America -- in the world! Generous room space and deluxe annex facilities, including a shower bath, are offered along with a sofa and two chairs for lounging. Two lower berths and one upper are available for bedtime and demand description as the ultimate in luxurious sleeping car travel for two and complete comfort for a family of three, or even four. And you are always next door to the popular lounge. The Master Room is truly unique, so make travel plans early and call for reservations soon!

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Try to top that, Amtrak!

This much attention to one shower in one room on one train is the point I try to make when showers on the train periodically creeps up. That is one of the things which is much better under Amtrak than under the private railraods,i.e. the prevalence of showers.

They were indeed very rare years ago . Probably just eight or ten trains around the whole country had one. And most of them were not "public" but rather were in one room in one car on one train.

The various remarks about how the equipment on this train changed through the years--nothng unusual about that. Almost any train on the Amtrak system now operating which formerly operated on the private railroads made many,many changes of equipment through the years. Such pre-Amtrak trains were almost never a solid line of identical changless cars(though some were when first ut into service) . All the different end points, all the adding and dropping of cars en route, all very routine.

The sleeper-lounge car with the master room, noted above, used to operate from New York to New Orleans but various needs, and lessening ridership, eventually took its toll..

,cutting it back from WAS to ATL

Bill do you know anything abot the L&N running the Crescent (sout of Atlanta ( ATL-Mobile-NOL)ater the Southern combining of the Southern and the Crescent.... Here's what I just the A&WP, Western of Alabama, and L&N continued to run the "Crescent" between Atlanta and New Orleans. Each morning, the "Crescent" and the "Southern Crescent" departed Atlanta for New Orleans over different routes. By then, the "Crescent" was a coach-only train sustained by two storage mail cars. Eventually, it was run combined with the "Pan American" south of Montgomery. In 1970, with the mail contract cancelled, the "Crescent" was discontinued.

Tim

The Crescent was combined with L&N's Hummingbird (not the Pan American) south of Montgomery. The Hummingbird had a 2 hour layover to wait for the Crescent. The Hummingbird was discontinued in January, 1969. For a while the West Point ran a coach only Crescent from Atlanta to Montgomery with no connection to New Orleans.

Yes, southbound the Crescent was combined from Montgomery to NOL with the Humming Bird (two words)and not the Pan American.

But northbound the Crescent was combined with the Pan American out of NOL. That happened for several years as trains got shorter and shorter.

As I said in the earlier post(post #24)the whole picture of trains combined between Montgomery, Flomaton,etc to NOL became very involved,and at one time or another,inclued the Crescent, the Humming Bird, the Gulf Wind, the Pan American and the Piedmnt Limited (not all at once,of course). I am speaking in abroad generalities as it got sort of complicated and things changed a lot towards the end.

 

[had8ley]

The long history of th train known variously as the Crescent Limited, the Crescent, the Southern Crescent and the Crescent is complicated Aso, that name from about 1971 to 1979,Southern Crescent, represented the merger between the Crescent and the Southerner.

One of the things which has not been consistent is the present day discharge only/receive only practice from Alexandria north. In fact, it is not consistent today, that is, with the southbound Carolinian.

Checking both a Southern timetable and an Amtrak TT for April 1978 I find the NYC cars for the Southern Crescnt were carried in the Patriot from Washington north, which of coure did have local coaches of its own, which would not be necessary to list in the Southern timetable.. And the timetable for that date does not how the "D" and "R" of today. But, as I said, that has varied through the yeas both with Amtrak and before when it was the Pennsylvania RR from WAS north.

Bill is correct, as usual. The Southern trains got switched around quite a bit once they arrived in D.C. Personally, I don't think the Southern was too interested in their equipment and OBS crews going to NYP (Sunnyside). At one time the sleepers rode one train north to NYP and the coaches rode another train; of course, this was pre-Amtrak.

 

[Bill Schaller]

+ + + + + + NOTE - a Near Two Year Old Topic + + + + + + +

Had the pleasure of many trips aboard the Southern Crescent, including in the Master Room. The fried chicken in the diner, served on real china, was excellent.my wife and I were aboard a sleeper when #2 derailed in Elma Va. At 5:38 am on that 1978 morning. I recall being awakened by the sound of the train going into emergency, followed immediately by the car going on the ground. It was a rough ride as we chewed up the ties before the Pullman came to rest almost on it's side. The conductor, despite having struck his head in an adjoining bedroom in the derailment, found our door in the darkness and asked if we were injured. The window in an adjacent room had to be broken to evacuate us as both vestibules were too damaged to allow egress. I vividly recall the smell when we got outside. Freshly dug earth, a carbon aroma from freshly twisted steel, diesel fuel and creosote. Among the lives lost, a young man who turned out to be the son of an old friend of my boss, and legendary Southern chef Louis Price. I later became a PV owner and leaving Chicago invited the gentleman who was president of the southern in 1978. He was fascinated to hear we had been on board and shared his unique memories of that day from his perspective. I recall he said of the engineer: "well, that was his last day on the railroad.". Unfortunately, it was for Louis Price as well.