In the 1st Qtr 04 LINES SOUTH, The Interchange Track, Paul Faulk tells us that Railway Classics is comming out with the origional three consists of the "Champion", ACL even numbers, ACL odd numbers, and FEC. Since these consists all came out in 1940, how long did they maintain their seperate identities ? Would a knowledgable individual be able to say in 1950 that a particular consist was the ACL even number consist, or did the cars go into other consist as demand require.

-- Roger duPont (vrdupont@webtv.net), February 20, 2004

Answers

Roger, I had some of these same questions when researching my ACL passenger book, and from what I know, believe that the original consists didn't stay "pure" very long. ACL bought additional lightweight coaches for the Champion in 1940 and 46, and also during the war started adding heavyweight sleepers. Also, photos show heavyweight coaches in the consist sometimes in the 1940s. Plus, the heavyweight lounge cars North Carolina and South Carolina were painted aluminum and used in the Champions for several years starting in 1941. So with all these extra cars, and the pressure of WWII travel, I suspect that the original 1939 consists stayed intact only a short time and almost surely not past the beginning of the war. Things were certainly well scrambled by 1950, since by that time ACL had also bought lightweight sleepers and additional lightweight diners and lounge cars.

-- Larry Goolsby (clgoolsby@att.net), February 21, 2004.