Macon to Athens mixed train in 1932

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A cousin, Albert Wimpy Ward, grew up in Watkinsville, and recalls riding the mixed train to Macon as a young boy in about 1935. Presumably he rode the early morning departure out of Watkinsville, rather than the later afternoon one. He remembers staying on the coach, set out a major stations, while the locomotive did local shunting.

Anyway, Albert's reminisces sent me to an old Official Guide, where I found a Timetable 6 dated December 4, 1932. Indeed, it shows two mixed trains each way. However, a curious fact emerges:

Northbound, each schedule departs daily, as Trains 77 & 79. But the southbound return trains (No. 78 & 78) have slightly different timings on Sunday, running instead as No. 14 & 20. There are no matching Trains 15 & 21 anywhere in the timetable; however, confusingly a Train 20 also runs daily from Atlanta to Columbus on Table 15.

Is there a reason for this anomaly? It cannot be explained by connections with the daily train from Macon to Porterdale, because the timings are consistent 7 days/week at the connection point of Machen.

Irv Smith Missouri City TX

-- Irv Smith (irvjane@aol.com), February 26, 2001

Answers

I can't address the specifics of this run, but do know it was common for local trains of that era to have a different schedule on Sundays. Often the Sunday schedules were more in daylight than the weekday runs. My speculation is that the Sunday schedule let patrons visit nearby larger towns for recreational purposes or perhaps church services. In addition, on Sundays the mixed trains may not have been constrained by the need to accommodate shippers and mail contracts.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), February 27, 2001.

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