I have a lovely 8X10 photo (by RD Sharpless) that I purchased several years ago from Frank Ardrey of CG E Unit 806 leading 'The Flamingo' away from Atlanta (East Point) on its leg to Macon. What were the years of operation of this passenger train, and what two cities did it connect? Which railroads handled portions of its journey? The shot was taken right after Thanksgiving in 1947 and shows the 806 'splitting' two blade signal posts as it accelerates between East Point and Hapeville, near the Atlanta airport.

-- Greg Hodges (ghodges@smpsfa.com), June 29, 2001

Answers

A few Flamingo important dates can be found at the Varnish page of the Society's Web site. These details came from Lyle Key's book Midwest Florida Sunliners, published in 1979.

Flamingo

Service between	Cincinnati and Jacksonville
Railroads	Cincinnati -- Atlanta	LN
	Atlanta -- Albany	CG
	Albany -- Jacksonville	ACL
Significant Dates	27 Sep 1925 - First run Dec 1962 - Discontinued south of Atlanta 7 Mar 1968 - Last run

See http://www.cofg.org/varnish.html for some details of other passenger trains on the Central of Georgia.

-- Ron Wright (ron@cofg.org), July 03, 2001.

I'm ill prepared to provide a complete answer, but checking through some excerpts of old timetables that Allen provided for a recent project revealed that The Flamingo was not listed in the 1947 TT, then appeared in the next one I have in 1954, as well in the couple others I have, the last being in 1962. Listed as Train 17 for westbound and 18 for eastbound, it made the run from Atlanta to Macon, then on to Albany. There were other stops in between. There is also a note to "See Page 6" (which I dont have copies of!) for details about the portion of this train's travel in Florida. So as I warned, an incomplete answer at best, but perhaps this gets you a little farther along! Ed

-- Ed Kelly (ed@brainrock.com), July 03, 2001.