In the World of Locomotive Companies — SAL Made Fortune
Fascinating Focus and Fearless Leadership Made Railroad Successful Article 6 of 6
Dear Reader,
In the last article, we looked at heavy-weight trains, streamliners, significant firsts, and freight trains use by this railroad. Here is a link to article 5 https://readmedium.com/728a55cb65fb?source=friends_link&sk=49302e5d582036af79daf2dee9f637d0
In this article, we will look at the piggyback service, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Free Traveling Library System, and a list of available resources for more discovery of this railroad is also provided.
Many thanks for staying with this series of articles from the first through the sixth. It is my hope and desire that I have shared information with you that was interesting and enjoyable to read. I sincerely hope that your time was well invested and that you may have learned something from this series. I appreciate you and look forward to writing more articles in the near term.
Introduction
In 1959 Seaboard inaugurated its high-speed piggyback service. Piggyback transportation refers to the transportation of goods where one transportation unit is carried on the back of something else.
It is a specialized form of intermodal transportation and combined transport. The best of this trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) train was the Razorback train TT#23, running from Kearny, New Jersey, (on the Pennsylvania Railroad) to Hialeah Yard, Miami, covering a distance of over 1,000 miles in less than 30 hours. You can view this train performing its purpose at (11) SAL TT-23 “THE RAZORBACK” — YouTube.
Seaboard Air Line Railway Free Traveling Library System
Sarah Harper Heard, a Georgia educator, activist, librarian, and gardener in the late 1890s, met with the vice president and general manager of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Everett St. John. She persuaded him to have the company transport books to every railroad stop.
These small libraries came to be called “S.A.L. Magundi Clubs”. St. John went on to contact Andrew Carnegie, who donated $1,000 towards the effort. Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist that lead the expansion of the American Steel Industry and became one of the richest Americans in history.
In 1898 the Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System started because of his support. Heard sometimes referred to the program as the “Andrew Carnegie Free Traveling Library”.
Heard also traveled to New York City, where she met with book editors and publishing houses to establish business agreements and request donations. She then traveled back to Georgia via the Eastern seaboard, recruiting librarians across six states along the way.
Her overall efforts were so successful that the New York Daily Tribune noted that the donations “enabled [Heard] to send the boxes in all directions. Quantities of books have been given and the rooms at Rose Hill, which were used as a distributing headquarters, are now overcrowded”.
By the turn of the century, the Seaboard library system boasted a collection of over 2,500 books and attracted so much support that it was able to donate entire libraries to deserving schools. Heard was named Seaboard’s Superintendent [of] Traveling Libraries in 1901.
By 1910, books were being circulated from Rose Hill to 35 community libraries and 150 school libraries; by 1912, the Seaboard library system comprised 18,000 books and 38,000 magazines. Several publications came from the United States Department of Agriculture.
In a 1901 special edition titled “Free Traveling Libraries”, Seaboard’s promotional magazine S.A.L. Magundi published an assortment of letters written by notable figures, including President William McKinley.
Also included were letters from the governors of Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and Andrew Carnegie.
Heard worked to establish twelve “McKinley libraries” in 1902, dedicated to “the characteristics and high ideals so exemplified in the life and purposes of [President William] McKinley”.
The traveling library system won a gold medal award at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition in Virginia. The Jamestown Exposition was a world fair and exposition. It celebrated the first permanent English settlement in the United States.
Heard died in 1919, after which her daughter Susan took over management as head librarian until her death on April 7, 1934; Susan’s husband James Y. Swift then filled the role.
Seaboard continued to transport books to small towns and libraries in need across the region until 1955, leaving behind new libraries scattered among small communities across the Southeast. The library system never charged fees for late or lost books. Its collection of books was donated to schools across Georgia.
For additional information on Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) please see the following resources:
- Railways portal
- List of Seaboard Air Line Railroad precursors
- List of railroads of the Confederate States of America
- Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
- Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
- Orange Blossom Special
- Silver Meteor
- Silver Star (Amtrak train)
- Silver Comet (train)
- Gulf Wind
Once again, thanks for reading the articles about SAL. If you have constructive criticism or favorable comments, I welcome them. I sincerely hope that this series benefitted the readers.
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