My father was an engineer on the Andrews, SC to Savannah, GA EC line during the 50's and 60's and also worked the Georgetown spur during the late 60's until his death in 1971. I am interested in any info, documents, personel archives, old photos, etc. I want to model the Andrews yard and Georgetown spur.

-- Terry Carr (tccarr@quixnet.net), January 13, 2004

Answers

Terry, I'm guessing that you are Harry's son. My dad worked Andrews and Georgetown as a brakeman and conductor from 1942 until his retirement in the late 1960s. I worked as a clerk and caller in 1949 and 1950 when I was a teenager. I will be happy to share with you any recollections that I have. Unfortunately, some work records that my mother had were lost when she moved to an apartment several years ago.

-- Jim Roquemore (roque@camden.net), January 20, 2004.

Hi Terry,

Have you checked out the Andrews-Georgetown area on MicroSoft Terraserver? If not, do an internet search for Terraserver and query for aerial photography on Andrews, SC. From Andrews you can get a bird's-eye view of what the line looks like and see some of the industries, plus in some cases you still can make out retired industries, old sidings, etc. Terraserver has recently been upgraded and the imagery is better than it used to be five years ago. I tell you this because it's a great place to start your research on the Georgetown line.

Yes, Lines did run an article on the EC but there was not much coverage on the Georgetown line. Digging up things for the EC articles took years--we felt we could've written a book on it but we just couldn't find the photos and data. If some of your Dad's engineer friends are still around I'm sure they'd be happy to talk to you about the line. I strongly recommend interviews--do them methodically and writing down everything they say--they'll reveal a wealth of information that we could all use. I interviewed two SAL dispatchers for another article in 2001 and I found out more about SAL in two hours than I ever read in any books.

I think we published some charts and maps of the Andrews area in the article. If not, contact me off-line and I'll see what else I can dig up.

John Golden O'Fallon, IL

-- John Golden (Golden1014@yahoo.com), January 15, 2004.

Terry, two recent issues of our magazine, Lines South, carried a detailed history of the EC line. They are the Fourth Quarter 2002 and First Quarter 2003 issues, and are available from our catalog at $5.95 each plus shipping; go to http://www.aclsal.org/products/newcatalog.htm#Lines%20South in our catalog section to order. Thanks for your interest and I hope you'll find these helpful. The information and photos that we are aware of on this line were all published in these articles, although others out there may have additional details.

-- Larry Goolsby (lgoolsby@aphsa.org), January 14, 2004.