Meredith and list
What a "fortuitous" question...It gives me a chance to ramble...Here goes...
A few years ago a Classics Professor who was a member of our Lincoln Railfans
Club commented favorably on my "BAck in the Days" piece which I write for our
club newsletter each month. He complimented me on my "good memory"..I said to
him something along these lines..."Well, I do have a good memory, but if I'm
not real sure "I just make it up"...His response..."Well, I suspected that, but
that's the mark of a good writer"...I took that as a favorable comment.
Now as to the "Dirty Side"...I'm not making all of this up, and I'll tell you
when I get to the "made up" part...My oldest memory of a mention of THE DIRTY
SIDE of the Chariton Branch stems from a warm summer evening about 1951 or 52.
My ralfan buddy Jim Christen and I were sitting on a bench in front of the
"Drug STore" in Corning,MO. The store building was owned by Jim's Grandmother
and the store itself was operated by Burlington Agent-Operator H.E. (Hap) Ware.
Hap...short for "Happy" one of those railroad nicknames which portrayed the
exact opposite of the real person. Hap was the Agent at Corning and even
though there was kind of a "business-family" connection with him Jim and I
never dared to go into the operator's "bay" at the depot.
In a rare time of good fortune for us Hap was sitting on the bench in front of
the store in an expansive mood and started telling us "railroad stories"..some
of which might have been true...Someplace along the line Hap mentioned the
"Dirty Side" of the Chariton Branch. I don't remember the context of the tale,
but the idea of the "Dirty Side" provoked some curiosity. As a bit of
explanation the line from Giles, nee Togo nee Bethany Junction southward
through Lamoni, Kellerton, Mt. Ayr, Delphos, Irena, Redding, Grant City,
Gentry, Worth to Albany Jct. (just south of Albany) was called the "Dirty
Side". I asked..."Well, what was the other side...(Giles, Bethany,
.....Albany) called..He said.."That was called THE STRAIGHT SIDE".
Over the years Jim and I speculated as to why the "Dirty Side" was called the
"Dirty Side"...We never came to any firm conclusion and I have no memory of
anyone explaining a further details.
As mentioned before Kellerton, IA was the birthplace of famed railroad fiction
author Harry Bedwell. Harry worked several of the stations on the Chariton
Branch in his early days as a student operator. One of his stories which
appeared under a couple of different titles in RAILROAD was "When There's
Traffic to Move". In this tale a young operator named Arthur began work on a
branch line which had several cattle shipping points and was receiving very
poor service and were losing the business. To make a "long story
short"..Arthur did some scheming and satisfied the cantankerous cattle baron
and got the business back for the railroad.. The setting and how the trai;ns
ran made me think of the "Dirty Side" and it occurred to me...(Here's the
possible "made up part)...Perhaps because of the numberous cattle loading
points...(and there really were on the D/S) that the "Dirty Side" moniker got
hung on that side of the branch.
Did you perhaps know any of the agents on the Chariton Branch??? In going
through some 1980's Burlngton Company magazines and looking in the retirements
section I noticed the name D.V.Bacon had retired from the Leon agency...Don was
an extra operator on the St. Joe Division in the 1950's
Well, I could give you more stuff, but my wife is urging me to "give it up" and
go with her to a 50th wedding anniversary thing this afternoon..
I'll be glad to handle any additonal questions with additional facts and "made
up" information.
Pete
.
-----Original Message-----
From: Meredith Johnston <mjohn@ncn.net>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Sep 17, 2010 9:47 am
Subject: [CBQ] Re: Depot interior question
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Jpslhedgpeth@... wrote:>
(first station east of Mt. Ayr on the "Dirty Side" of the Chariton branch.
>
> Pete
Pete:
Why was the Togo-Mt. Ayr-Albany portion of the Chariton Branch called the
"Dirty Side"?
I was was raised in Decatur County and went to high school in Garden Grove on
the Chariton Branch so I am always interested in learning as much as I can
about the area.
One of my classmate's father was on the section and worked that area. Wish I
had been more interested in railroads at that time. The only thing I distinctly
remember was the NB mixed freight that went through Garden Grove during noon
hour while in school; a couple or three cars and one coach tacked on the end.
Seemed like there was always one old lady riding the coach, the only passenger.
Meredith Johnston
Spencer, IA
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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