Does anyone have a picture or plan of the ACL Columbus Street yardmaster's office in Charleston SC from the 1940/50 period? My Grandfather, Harley Hackett, was Yardmaster then. Tks.mw

-- mike west (mwest4@home.com), March 26, 2000

Answers

Mike, I'm not sure where you're currently located, but if you can get access to an library or archive containing past issues of Chareleston's Newspaper you're in luck. Back around 1970, the Charleston paper, then called the News & Courier, ran a special edition celebrating Charleston's tricentenial. In the section on the area's transportation history there was an official ACL photograph taken from one of the Charleston Union Station towers. Immediately across the street can be seen the Yard Masters office and in the distance can be seen the old coal trestle. No doubt by now this photograph has ended up in someone's personal collection or worse some municipal landfill in the Jacksonville area.

If you don't have access to a library then just drop me an email with your address and I can mail you a photocopy next time I'm back on the coast and can access my materials. I think I have a valuation sheet for the yard that would show the building footprint etc. If so I'll include that as well. Interestingly, my father also started working for the ACL out of that same office in the late 50's. I believe the yardmaster at that time was Mr. Tumblin and my father's immediate boss was Mr. Cole. I fondly recall visiting both men with my father after they retired and listening in awe at all their stories. Thanks for the reviving some long fogotten memories.

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), March 26, 2000.