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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1966)
3 Productions Set For Fallout Theater Friday Night “THE CLEARINGS” .. . cast members are, from left, Louis Worn- Hastier and Virginia Patterson, mer, Larry Baugh, Bernest Evans, Don Three plays are on the agenda for Friday night in the Fallout Theater-Workshop. ‘The Return,” written by A&M student Fred Rich, will be direct ed by John Trott. The cast in cludes Diana Weirus, Larry Kifk and Trott. Second on the program is “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jack- son and directed by Gerald Gar cia. Featured in this play are Bill Lero, Sammy Lebello, Britt Martin, Andy Tijerina, Herky Killingsworth, Scott Marable, Trudy Adams and Ann Spivey. Also appearing are Patricia Hill, Butch Baldridge, Roger Killingsworth, Tom Morgan, Jody Worsham, Jim Baily, Jim Davis and Charles Jageler. “The Clearings,” written and directed by Virginia Patterson, will conclude the evening’s enter tainment. Bernest Evans, Miss Patterson, Larry Baugh, Louis Worn mer, Don Hastier and Rob Cook make up the cast. Curtain time is 8 p.m. Admis sion is fifty cents. The Fallout Theater is located in the rear of Guion Hall. . .. cast members are, from left, John Trott, Larry Kirk and Diana Weirus. ★ ★ ★ Cbc Battalion Volume 61 COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1966 Number 326 “THE LOTTERY” . . . part of cast are, from left, Trudy Adams, Ann Spivey, Pat Hill and Tom Morgan. Skillman Joins B&U As Deputy Director Retired Corps of Engineers Col. Charles Spencer Skillman joined Texas A&M’s Buildings and Utilities Department as deputy director. Skillman, 52, will direct production and distribution of all utilities, announced physical plants director Walter H. Parson. The retired colonels have been acquainted 20 years and worked together at the Fort Belvoir, Va., engineer school. “I consider Charley one of the finest officers in or out of the service,” Parsons said. “The university is very fortunate to get him in this capacity.” With the Corps of Engineers, the New Jersey-born of ficer was logistics director for the Army Test and Evalu ation Command at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. He was in charge of facilities, procurement, services and instru mentation. Skillman entered the Army Reserve in 1936 and went on active duty in December, 1940. He served in the Burma- China-India theatre during World War II. The 26-year veteran was senior engineer advisor for the Korean Army, and served in several engineer school posts, director of an Engineer Research and Development Laboratory department and commander of the Engineer Maintenance Center in Ohio, among numerous assignments. The logistics expert holds membership in Tau Beta Pi, national army engineer society; the Society of American Military Engineers of which he is past president and the American Section of the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congress (rivers and harbors work.) Campus Landmark Bows Out A campus landmark familiar to thousands of Texas A&M former students is being razed to make way for parking im provements. The railroad station at Aggie- land soon will be replaced with a massive parking lot to accommo date the mushrooming number of cars on campus. The frame structure is bowing out in favor of the automobile which led to the death of train passenger service. Thousands of Aggies have “hit the ground running” at the Old College Road Station. Among them is Ernest Lang ford, archivist for A&M. Fifty- seven years ago, Langford step ped reluctantly from a Houston and Texas Central train. This week, he watched workmen rip the station earthward. The former College Station mayor seated himself on a cross tie and dredged up memories from long ago: “In those days students either rode the train or came to A&M by horse and buggy,” he recalled. “It took me 23 hours to get here from Bertram in Burnet County. I had to change trains at Austin and Hempstead. If my ticket had been for further up tbe line, I would have kept right on going, but I’m glad I stayed.” “A. R. Cummins of Burnet, a chap I met on the train,” Lang ford continued, “was the only human being other than Private A. R. Wilson of Burnet that I knew at A&M. Cummins knew R. G. Sherrard, a major in the cadet corps. Sherrard met us at the train and got us registered and housed within the hour.” “Sometimes,” the historian noted, “I wonder why the fresh men who spend a week getting straightened out don’t head for home.” Langford mopped his brow in the 95-degree heat and went on: “We made corps trips for years by train. My freshman year we beat Texas 23-0 in the rain at Houston. And we beat ’em again that year, 5-0 in Austin. Touch downs counted five points then. Louis Hamilton—we called him Louie—ran a record 90-yard TD in Houston, then notched a 10- yarder in Austin.” “You remember things like that when you forget your birth days,” he chuckled. Back to railroading, Langford commented: “College Station used to have 12 passenger trains a day. H&TC had the “Hustler,” “Sun beam,” “Owl” and “Central Ex press.” International and Great Northern numbered its trains. “The Owl was a famous night train from Dallas to Houston, or vice-versa,” Langford explained. “Sometimes it had 18 cars with double headers (two engines).” Records show the “Owl” was pulled off the line in 1958 after 86 years of service. “I rode the ‘Owl’ a few days before it was discontinued,” Lanford confided. “It had shrunk JWIWPJPJP' RAILROAD REFLECTIONS Texas A&M Archivist Ernest Langford fashions a fan from shingles from the College Station railroad depot and reminisces about the landmark’s history. Thousands of Aggies were introduced to the campus at this location. Passenger service was discontinued in 1958. Air-Conditioning Boom To Hit Campus Soon to one day coach on the end of a freight train.” Dignitaries through the years came to Aggieland by train. Among them were presidents William Howard Taft and Frank lin Delano Roosevelt. “The corps marched to the sta tion to hear President Taft speak about three minutes from the back of the train,” Langford reminisced. Ca p t a i n Andred Moses, A&M commandant, pre vailed on Taft’s people to stop the train here during a Southern swing in the spring of 1910. Roosevelt stayed the better part of a day for a review in his honor. Termites had eaten the foun dation to pieces 40 years ago, Langford said. Carpenters jacked the building three feet off the ground and replaced 8 by 8 pine sills 40 feet long. The old sills were so damaged that a man could carry one under his arm. A freight room on the south and a portico on the north were add ed then. The I&GN was later bought by Missouri-Pacific. H&TC has long since been the property of South ern Pacific. It’s lines were in the area before the college was char tered. Work began in 1860 was interrupted by the Civil War. After the war construction rolled from Millican, 20 miles to the south, and the railroad was open ed to Bryan in August, 1867. Langford said the H&TC ran the first train from Houston to Dallas July 16, 1872. Changing times have pushed passenger trains into museums, but the memories linger. Wreck ing crews swarmed over the sta tion while a photographer snap ped pictures. Progress has little respect for sentimentalists. Texas A&M will have 55 air- conditioned buildings when proj ects approved by the System’s Board of Directors are complet ed. Installation of chill water lines to G. Rollie White Coliseum and east dormitories will initiate projects. Physical plant mana ger W. Howard Badgett esti mates work will begin within a month. About 5,500 feet of two 14- inch insulated steel pipes will be buried four feet deep alongside Military Walk, Houston Street and Joe Routt Boulevard. Along with 2,000 feet now installed to cyclotron, civil engineering and geology buildings, lines to go in to service almost doubles campus chill water line circuits, Badg- ett’s figures show. Water at 42 degrees tempera ture is produced at A&M’s power plant. The operation utilizes five 1,000 ton cooling units. Three new units to carry addi tional cooling loads are being planned, revealed chief plant en gineer James C. Redman. The 260,000 gallon system chills the water and pumps move fluid at 1,800 gallons a minute to prevent soaked collars, frayed nerves and increase work capaci ty. Water returns at 56 degrees after going through coil and fan units. “I expect few people know campus air-conditioning comes from this building and how it is produced,” Redman said. Absorption units evaporate a lithium bromide solution, spray ing it over water pipes to draw out heat. About 400 kilowatts an hour is required to operate each unit at 20 pounds steam pressure. Largely automatic, the system requires only IVz hours of an operators’ eight-hour shift. Time is spent logging, oiling and cleaning equipment. Maintenance problems are few. “The secret of an absorption unit is keeping it under vacuum,” Redman noted. When air leaks in, which has happened six times since 1958, water boils off and solution solidifies. “We close off water, shoot steam to the chamber and break up the lithium bromide, circulat ing water at intervals to get it going again,” Redman said. “Usually, it takes an hour or two to clear up.” Solidification doesn’t cause loss of air - conditioning. Tempera tures may rise slightly, but functioning units carry the load. The trouble-free operation se cludes workmen who run the 40- foot long, 20-foot high double barrelled units. Five rotating shifts of four men run the plant that produces power, steam, domestic hot First Bank & Trust now pays 5% per annum on savings cer tificates. —Adv. water, heating, cooling, com pressed air and tap water. Work under stationary engineers Fran cis Arnold, Eugene Lenz, Loss Warlick, Douglas Lewis and T. L. Calvin assure that refrig erators stay within load limits. Each unit averages 800 tons an hour. Space is available for the three planned units. The system now carries 4,208 designed tons, but requirements will multiply as construction is completed. Air-conditioning planned in cludes the 12-dormitory east area, giving A&M 22 cooled dorms, Duncan Dining Hall and G. R. White Coliseum. New construction on Cushing Library will make it A&M’s largest building, with more than four acres of floor. “It will require 750 tons of air-conditioning,” Badgett said. Future system air-conditioning projects includes a proposed au ditorium. “We run at 65 to 70 per cent diversification,” he added. Re quirements for cool air in the coliseum, for example, will be offset by lowered usage else where. As buildings are added to the system, plant production of cool water must be stepped to meet demands. Power plant personnel know how to play the game coolly. RoomReservations Now Available Students who will attend the second summer term should re port to the Housing Office and sign up for rooms, said Allan M. Madeley, Housing Manager. The following schedule starting at 8 p.m. through 5 p.m. should be followed: Today through Tuesday stu dents who wish to reserve the room they now occupy should sign up. Wednesday through June 15 students who wish to reserve a room other than the one they now occupy may sign for rooms on a first come, first served basis. Male single undergraduate stu dents are required to live on campus unless they live with their families, Madeley said. Ex ceptions to this policy may be filed with the Student Affairs Office. TO PERFORM AT FOLKSONG CONCERT Ann Balling-er, left, and Louis Wommer will perform dur ing a folksong concert featuring Texas A&M faculty and students at 7:30 p. m. Sunday at Guion Hall’s Fallout Theater. Sponsored by the A&M John Avery Lomax Soci ety, the two-hour program is open to the public. Admission is 50 cents per person. Other performers include Grant and Bertie Thomas, Dick Gustafson, Bob Robinson and Mary Kay Hurbert, Ken Curry, Diana Hoge, Jim Pye and Jim Newett, plus the Wanderers from Lake Charles, La.