Folks, I came across a copy of the Fall 99 issue of the Locomotive Quarterly at a local hobby shop and the lead story was entitled "Central of Georgia's Diverse Locomotives". In this article, which covered steam and not diesel power, it has many great photos of the various CofG steam power, including a couple of shots with tank cars (as many as two) directly behind the tender, These were listed as auxiliary water cars or canteen cars. My question is this, was this standard practice or could they have just been tank cars full of some non-flammable commodity such as milk. The reason I ask is that I do not remember this being mentioned in Prince's CofG steam book or in the CofG Railway Album. Many thanks, Warren

-- Warren D. Stephens (wdstephens@prodigy.net), December 16, 1999

Answers

I can't answer the question directly, however, based on my knowledge of Atlantic Coast Line practice in the late steam years, I would guess these were indeed auxiliary water or canteen cars. As steam was being phased out on the ACL in the late 40s and early 50s, the railroad started removing as many steam servicing facilities as it could, including water tanks. The few remaining steam locos were then often given water cars to extend their range between the now-far- apart water tanks. Although the practice definitely existed, it was certainly not covered in the Prince books; Mr. Prince made no mention of the end of steam power nor the new-fangled diesels that replaced it.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), December 16, 1999.