The ambitiously-named Atlantic & Western Railway was incorporated in 1899 to construct a railroad from Sanford, North Carolina, eastward to Goldsboro -- a distance of 70 miles. By 1913 it had been extended at far east from Sanford as Lillington, but it was never extended further. The eastern end of the line -- Jonesboro to Lillington -- was abandoned in 1961. The remaining 4 mile shortline operated from mainline connections in downtown Sanford to serve customers along the line to Jonesboro, a community on the southeastern end of Sanford. The line was acquired in 1988 by interests controlled by Rail Management Corporation.
I had the opportunity to be a brakeman for the Atlantic and for about two weeks in 1993. The regular guy called off and one of the office workers knew I had a background in railroading and called me to see if I was available for a couple of weeks. I jumped at the opportunity and after a drug test and a rules examination I was signed on. My instructions from the engineer were simple: stand by the car being pulled and signal the coupling, connect the air hoses, make sure the air lines were cut out, and dont get run over. Occasionally I had to signal the crossing at Horner Blvd.
At the time, operations were pretty light. Daily operations consisted of pulling and putting a half dozen rail cars to several industries: a scrap yard and a warehouse facility. The motive power was a GE 70 ton light switcher A&W No 100.
Engineering Information
The General Electric (GE), 70-ton switcher is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built between 1942 and 1955. During that time, a total of 238 examples would be produced. It is classified as a B-B type locomotive. The switcher had a Cooper-Bessemer FWL-gT (6 cyl) diesel engine capable of producing 500–660 horsepower .A&W No 100 was built in September 1950. It was one of two GE# 70 ton switchers on
the railroad, the other one being No 101 that was acquired from the Laurinburg Southern (their No 102).
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| Sanford, NC / Apr 1990 / Warren Calloway Collection |
The WWSL
I am going to model the Atlantic and Western Railroad No.100 as a bookcase model.
Modeling Information
Bachmann (Spectrum series) has a HO model of the GE 70 ton switcher. I will kitbatch the kit, as a minimum upgrading the the handrails with brass parts, the couplers with Kadee No. 148 couplers, and adding additional details as appropriate.
Paint Scheme
Locomotive exterior: Antique White VMA 71.xxxRoof: Maroon VMA 71.xxx
Frames, main and truck: Black VMA 71.xxx
Side Frame and Pilot: White with safety stripe on the pilot
Running gear, including wheels: Black
Cab interior: Cab Gray (suede) VMA 71.xxx
Lettering and Numbering Scheme
Decal. Lettering and logo are from k4decals.com: atlantic-and-western-40-ft-boxcar-black-decal-atw40
Numbering. Number below cab window and headlights
Addendum: If I ever decide to run this unit I'll upgrade it with a Tsunami 2 V 1.2 M TSU-1100 GE Diesels, using the FDL-16 Prime mover sounds. I also added a TCS Keep Alive, sugar cube speaker and new LED golden white lights.
Reference
70-tonner (1:87 scale): Drawn by Jacques Belanger. Used by permission.
Misc Info (Draft)
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