| This is a page from January 1970 from the register book at Americus GA. I "rescued" several of these books in the early 1980's from the abandoned freight depot (now torn down) in Americus. While I do not have an employee timetable for the 1970's I do have a 1967 edition and it helps shed a little light so as to better understand the information here. Americus was a bit tricky. Timetable directions indicate that a train traveling from Columbus to Albany was considered eastbound from Columbus to Americus and was shown as westbound from Americus to Albany. Therefore trains traveling from Columbus to Albany would leave Columbus as an even numbered train, since westbounds and northbound trains were assigned even numbers, but would get a new number at Americus due to now heading west since westbounds and southbound trains are traditionally odd numbered trains. The process was reversed on trains traveling from Albany to Columbus. Therefore train #64 from Columbus to Albany became #65 at Americus. Train #66 became #67, #52 became #53, and #50 became #51. Check the eastbound and westbound registers for the same day and you will see that the engine numbers and crews stay the same only the numbers change. As further information #'s 64, 65, 66, and 67 appear to be freights while #52/53 appear to be the City of Miami. Note the IC locomotive numbers and the consist showing 14 cars. #50 and #51 appear to be the Seminole. Did the Seminole come off at the end of this month?? Again note the locomotive numbers and the consist. #83 and #84 is a local that operated between Americus and Eufaula via Smithville. Of interest is there is no entry for trains that traveled between Albany and Macon. I'm not sure if perhaps there was another book they would use to register or if they were not required to register. The work extra that shows up as working between Hope and the MP H250 was actually a local that went toward the Macon side to work a bauxite mine and return to Americus. Finally as information, the station Opto was actually the Albany end of double track while Hope is now known as BV&E Jct. I hope you find this as interesting as I do.....a glimpse into railroading in the past. |