开云体育

On 06/07/2024 4:55 PM EDT Warren Stephens <wdstephens@...> wrote:


Well I thought I would share copies of the only two TAG passenger timetables that I have managed to find. The smaller and less elegant version from 1923 came in the mail yesterday but the 1912 variant has been in my collection for a few years now. The dealer I bought the 1912 steam era variant from said I would never find another because he had been a timetable collector for decades and it was the only one he had ever seen. They are both very delicate. The latest one I found in an action not listed under railroad memorabilia but in a collection of WW2 ration stamps from a person who had lived in Menlo. Dumb luck that I even saw it as the stamps were the focus of the action. The 1912 is perhaps the first issued under the TAG name. The 1923 is perhaps the first issue of the scooter era. Note how it plays up the motorcar service by bragging about the lack of smoke and cinders and dust. I don’t know about you but after a steam excursion I can tell how much fun I had by the size of the bathtub ring. I always thought that TAG only offered a local Chattanooga turn. With the exception of the very limited time they offered through coach service via their connection at Gadsden with the L&N. This was back in the Chattanooga Southern era. But look very carefully, there was scooter service in 1923 that also originated and returned to Gadsden. Four trains involving both scooters, a turn in each direction, from each terminal. I have never seen this mentioned before. The employees timetable from October 1915 does list trains one through four but trains one and two are Monday through Saturday and trains three and four are Sunday only with a slightly different schedule. Most TAG historians believed that they bought both scooters to have one in reserve and to protect the schedule if the primary car needed maintenance. It is known that TAG had on order, a third car from Brill, but they canceled this order. Perhaps they soon realized that the passenger yield was never going to support service in both directions so they in fact, didn’t need the third spare car. Oddly enough and about this same time, TAG bought a handful of surplus passenger coaches from the Central of Georgia. I believe these were for use with a northeast style milk train operation being purposed, servicing dairies in the Chattanooga Valley. But that is pure speculation on my part based on a few newspaper articles. Well let me know what you think. And sorry for my sock feet in the background. These were both single pages folded in the middle to make four panels.

Warren