Inside the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum

I love old oil lamps and lanterns and the museum has many. Do you have antique oil lamps? I have 5 of them, but no lanterns like these.

Riding The Rails - Re-post 2009

Train rides are my fondest memories of the first 25 years of my life.

From 1944 to 1969, my mother and I traveled the Atlantic Coastline RR, on the Champion and the Silver Meteor, several times a year.

photos taken on first train ride at the museum in 2009

Mother was born and raised in Palmetto, and married my dad on her 18th birthday in 1943.
She had been riding the trains to Savannah and back during the war years to see her dad, who was at the CC Camp in Savannah. In fact the trains ran on these same rails.

On my first ride with my mother, she was 5 months pregnant with me in 1944 and that was the beginning of my love affair with trains.

I truly loved the trains, the squealing of the wheels as they stopped, the rattling on the rails and the waddle as we backed into the stations in Savannah and Jacksonville, the long mournful wails as we got close to a crossing.

I did NOT love the fact the bathrooms were locked in the 2 hour lay over in Jacksonville and the 1 hour in Tampa.

The bathrooms were very tiny and very loud, and they rattled and shook me so hard I could hardly stand.

I made many trips to those little rooms because of the amazing water that came out of the spigots on the wall and trickled into those tiny little cups. I think they held maybe 3 ounces.

Did I mention the reclining seats? and the pillows provided by the conductor? Sheer Magic!

The cars I rode were very much like these.

The conductors amazed me as they traveled up and down the aisles, swaying to the rocking cars. The same rocking cars that caused me to stagger and fall against the seats as I traveled to the water fountains and rest rooms. Mother packed lunches because there was no money for the dining car, and she would not even let me go peek in the door to see where the rich were eating and drinking.

The trip was 10 long hours, and I loved every minute, that is until my brother was added to the trip when I was 4. Some of the joy was snatched away while he was a baby, but the joy came back as he grew older, but he never loved the train like I did. He entertained himself with tiny toy soldiers.

In my teens I was allowed to do the trip ALONE.What Fun! My last train ride, in 1969, I was alone, riding for the last time to attend my grandmothers funeral. To see her for the last time.

Eleanor Roosevelt Rail Car

Entrance to Eleanor Roosevelt's  Private Railroad Car, right into the lounge for the Secret Service,

they traveled with her as photographers, using their cameras to scan the crowd.

  The Govt. did not want it known they were with her to protect her, so they pretended to be her personal photographers. This allowed them to use there cameras to scan the crowds and it appeared she was unprotected...

Where she slept

Her private lounge, which was the largest part of the car.

with it's own private sink and for some reason the names are on the water in English and French. And of course the MadSnapper in the private station.

where the others of her party slept... Note the tiny rooms

Below is how the room looked, above is with the seat open to sleep. Some had the double seat, others the single seat, each had it's own bathroom.

And below is the kitchen that fed them all.

 I took my two friends to show them this car, and sadly, the museum had to sell the car to keep the rest of the cars running.

there were fans in all the rooms...  NOTE:  MadSnapper is Taking a few days off...

Periwinkle Junction Train Robbery - Re-post 2/24/2010

As we pulled into the small town of Periwinkle Junction, it looked very peaceful.

The peace did not last for long!

Gunfire, Robbers approached the Train climbed aboard and toted off the gold.

More Outlaws appeared in the streets

The outlaw leader in red, gave a command the other outlaw did not understand.

He acted peaceful

This marshal new better

Soon the Leader of the Outlaws lay sprawled in the streets of Periwinkle Junction

The Marshals herded the outlaws back to the train, forcing them to return the gold where they found it

Guess who was hanging over the side of the train Madly Snapping?

More proof of who was hanging over the side of the train, I Madly Snapped hanging off the side of the train for the whole gunfight

I concocted a lil ole slide show to share with you all and heh it is in all its glory.

turn yur sound up iffin you like gunfire. HA HA from MadSnapper

Civil War Weekend - Period Dress

I asked one of the women, in a big hoop skirt, was it comfortable and she laughed long and loud, before she said NO. She said there are 8 layers of clothes to being in that period dress. Yowsa from me in my t-shirt and Capri pants.

 I have my mother shawl in the closet, that is identical to this one.

Enlarge to see the whiskey bottle, this is the nurse for the Confederate hospital

 Harriet Tubman was a black woman and called The Union Spymaster. She was the first woman in our history to lead a military expedition when she lead a night raid to free slaves from rice plantations.
Read about here here at Women Spies of the Civil War

There were hundreds of lady spies for both sides in this war. If you are interested, go to
Secret Agents In Hoop Skirts

 Trivia Facts from Aha Military Jokes

BIGGEST MAN... The biggest man in the Union Army was Capt. David Van Buskirk of the 27th Indiana Regiment who stood 6 feet 11 inches and weighed 380 pounds. He was captured in 1862 and was sent to a Richmond Prison where a Confederate entrepreneur put him on exhibit. Even Confederate President Jeff Davis came to see him and was astounded when the impish Van Buskirk claimed that back home in Bloomington Indiana, "when I was at the train station with my company , my six sisters came to say goodbye. As I was standing there, with my company, they all came up to me, leaned down and kissed me on top of the head."

 BATHROOM... Although not listed in the rules of war, soldiers on both sides did not shoot at the enemy when he was going to the bathroom

You should have seen these hoops skirted ladies trying to sit down on the train.