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I have nearly all Southern RR timetables from 1950 forward. And they all show the same thing. The southbound Royal Palm makes conditional stops at Spring City,TN and Dayton TN. It stops to discharge passengers from Cincinnati or beyond, and to receive for Chattanooga or beyond.
No problem there, I fully understand conditional stops and all timetables had lots of them.
My problem is that neither the Royal Palm or the Ponce de leon stops at all northbound at those two towns.
See the problem?
These means that people could not return by train who had arrived by train.
That is, the Royal Palm made conditional stops at those two places southbound.But NO train stopped at all northbound.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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I've seen that same problem several other places. Not many, mind you, but some. I have a couple of ideas, but they're only theories, not facts.
1.) Sometimes the railroads operated second- or third-class trains which were not listed in most of their public timetables. These were usually all-stops locals or "employee specials" catering to non-revenue passengers, often using obsolete (non-air-conditioned) equipment.
2.) The major traffic at those stops may have been from parcel post mail and/or express, and the stops may have been arranged during those hours when depot personnel would have been on-duty to sort and handle those items.
3.) The traffic count northbound may have been so small that the stop was discontinued, but either regulatory requirements or reason #2 above required keeping the southbound stop.
Again, just a hypothesis. Anyone with hard information is invited to chime in.
notelvis Member # 3071
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I would guess that whatever nameless local train providing a third frequency each direction on the CNO&TP route likely covered the northbound stop at these communities.
When that train was discontinued, the railroad was not inclined to otherwise cover the stops with either the Royal Palm or Ponce De Leon but may have feared that making any changes to the southbound operation of the remaining trains may have drawn negative attention from the regulatory agency involved in discontinuance proceedings....
Again - just conjecture on my part....
You have, perhaps, noticed that as late as 1976 Southern's southbound 'Southern Crescent' was making conditional stops at Manassas and Orange, VA with no northbound counterpart providing passenger service to those communities.
palmland Member # 4344
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I think between Eric's No. 1 reason or David's suggestion there is the correct answer on this important issue.
According to my OGR for 1949, the situation was the same as described by Bill in 1950. However, in 1948 there was an all stops local that served these towns in both directions as well as the northbound Ponce de Leon. By the following year the local had been cut back to Somerset, some 100 miles north, and the northbound through train blew through town.
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