I am finishing up a complete roster of ACL, SAL, SCL lightweight passenger equipment and have a few questions regarding equipment destroyed in wrecks on the Coast Line. Can anyone provide information concerning the wrecks at Milan, NC. on 7/24/43, the wreck at Dillon, SC which destroyed ACL coaches 202 and 205, and the wreck on Amtrak, sometime in Dec, 1971, which caused SCL to swap damaged equipment with ATK? I am particularly interested in which cars were damaged, which trains were invloved and if other off-line cars were invloved. Thank you.

-- Scott Lofreddo (lofreddo@aol.com), December 10, 2000

Answers

The following SCL cars were wrecked on December 23, 1971: Baggage Dorm SCL 5024 formerly SAL 6052 Budd 1947 50 Seat Coach SCL 5133 formerly SAL 6230 formerly C&O 1601 Budd 1948 This car was rebuilt by SAL to 50 seats from its original 36 seat 8 lounge seat configuration. 54 Seat Coach SCL 5466 formerly ACL 244 P-S 1949 56 Seat Coach SCL 5600 formerly ACL 200 Budd 1939

These cars were either sold to, or were to be sold to, AMTRAK, and in their place, SCL provided the following four cars:

SCL 6614 Jacksonville formerly SAL 32 Jacksonville P-S 1949 SCL 6620 Portsmouth formerly SAL 28 Portsmouth P-S 1949 SCL 6642 Marion County formerly ACL Marion County P-S 1949 SCL 6650 Putnam County formerly ACL Putnam County P-S 1949

Car 5600 was one of the cars in the inaugural Champion train set. Built by Budd in 1939, ACL rebuilt the car at its Emerson shops in 1953 with Electro-mechanical air conditioning and a new electrical system, which included the replacement of its all incandescent lighting system with fluorescent lighting.

Car 5133 was originally built for the ill fated C&O "Chessie" train. It was purchased by SAL in 1950 as one of eight cars. Of these eight cars, 5 were rebuilt by SAL to a 50 seat configuration while 3 cars retained their original 36 seat/8 lounge seat configuration. ACl purchased similar cars, but did not rebuild them.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), December 12, 2000.

The derailment occured at 6:10 PM on December 23, 1971 and was caused by one or more persons opening the spur=track switch AND failure of the enginemen to maintain a proper lookout ahead. All three locomotives and the first 12 cars were derailed. The engineer did not note that the vane on the switch target was red until No. 85 was approximately 200 ft. from the siding, the crew had been engaged in repairing the oscillating white headlight which, when restored, caused the red oscillating headlight to illuminate giving a reddish cast to the view ahead. According to the F.R.A., "the one or more persons who maliciously opened the spur track switch have been tentatively identi- fied by police authorities, but have not been apprehended, due to lack of sufficient evidence."

-- Harry Bundy (y6b@aol.com), December 12, 2000.

tell me more info about this wreck in pinellas park, fla... i grew up in seminole right off of the ex-sal line from clearwater - st pete...

-- troy nolen (kirkwood@gdn.net), December 11, 2000.

See my article on observation car wrecks in the current issue of Lines South. It deals with both Milan and Kittrell where observation cars were wrecked.

At Milan NC ACL observation car 250 was wrecked and scrapped. At Dillon SC in 1953 ACL cars 202 and 205 were destroyed, along with FEC cars Port Everglades, Hollywood, Cocoa-Rockledge

I provided some detail on this wreck in some previous discussions on this web site.

E mail me directly for more info.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), December 11, 2000.

Two of the cars involved in the Amtrak Champion wreck at Cross Bayou (Pinellas Park)Fl in Dec. 1971 were ACL coach #244 and SCL coach #5600 . I purchased the car # signs from both a short time following the wreck. Incidently the yard into which the Champ derailed was Acre Iron & Scrap,which is still in business.

-- paul b. coe (paul_coe@yahoo.com), December 10, 2000.

I can only guess about the Dec.1971 wreck.The Champion was switched into a junk yard just north of St.Petersburg,FL.Is that it?

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), December 10, 2000.