The Midwest-Florida SOUTHLAND took the CofG route between Atlanta and Albany. My question: did CofG normally contribute any cars to the train's consist, especially later in the train's career? If so, on which segements of the route did they operate? Thanks for all replies.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), October 14, 2002

Answers

Actual consists for the Southland are very hard to come by. I found 3 in the Pullman records at the Newberry Library, but they are all from 1942. (Pullman made a report of all train derailments that included Pullman equipment, and for whatever reason, the Southland suffered 3 derailments within the space of a few months in 1942.) In these 3 consists, the only CofG cars are express cars, and the coaches were either ACL or L&N. The report does not indicate if the cars ran through or not, although I suspect they were. All 3 derailments occurred in Florida on the ACL portion of the run, so we know that the CofG cars at least made it this far on the route.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), October 15, 2002.

Starting in January 1954 the CofG's Dothan/Panama City through cars ran north of Albany on the Southland. Prior to this time the train to Dothan/Panama City ran as a separate train. Equipment used for Dothan service was through coaches and a sleeper (10 sections, 2 Compartments, 1 Drawing room). They show being handled between Atlanta and Panama City. I would think that these cars would have been CofG owned cars due to the fact that they were added in Atlanta and took the place of a service that formally traveled all CofG to Dothan.

As further info, the equipment for the Southland listed in the January 1954 timetable also shows a sleeper (probably sleeper/lounge....shows 8 sections, 10 seats {Buffet}) that was handled between Atlanta and Tampa/Sarasota. Perhaps a CofG car or an ACL owned car??? All other sleepers show originating in Chicago or Detroit.

Hope this helps.

Bryan Smith

-- Bryan Smith (bsmith3608@aol.com), October 14, 2002.