Nostalgia & History > Old ALCO Sunday (& an F unit)

Hope you're not getting tired of the old black and whites...any way...

All were taken around 1970.

1) Dwight to Washington Local coming into Washington.
2) Dwight to Washington Local at Evans, IL. February 7, 1972. Train had been hitting some snow drifts causing snow to get into the traction motors kicking out the ground relay. The train tied up here I wound up driving the crew back to Dwight. RS-1's do not make very good snow plows!! GM&O preferred to use an F unit and the only time I saw one used as such was two days later when one was used to plow the line.
3) GM&O 885A in Washington after plowing the branch from Dwight. One drift was a quarter mile long and 6 feet deep. The engineer asked if I wanted to ride in the cab, along with the section men [with shovels] but the conductor vetoed the idea.

Roger Holmes

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4) A pair of ex-Illinois Terminal RS-1's on a transfer run going by Corwith on the south side of Chicago. One unit is still in the IT green and yellow and paired up with a bright red one, the transfer job got the nickname "Circus Train"
5) GM&O 1516, used a lot on the "long arm local" that ran between Glenn Yard in Chicago to Bloomington, running six days a week alternating destinations.
6) RS-1 #59 at Bloomington crossing the N&W [ex-NKP] and Penn Central [ex-Peoria & Eastern] #50 and #59 were the two RS-1's that I saw on the Dwight branch.

Roger Holmes

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Wow, that third shot of the F with snow is outstanding!

Thanks! Here's a shot of it in color [from http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2376882,2376882#2376882].

Roger

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So is the semaphore in pic 6 for train orders or is it part of the signaling system to let the N&W cross the GM&O? I know that BN Target wasn't interlocked so am curious. My memories of this area do not include that signal. I remember some red lights mounted right at the BN target building that were normally red or flashing red every time I was down there.

Thanks

The signal that you see is for the N&W. The flashing light that you remembered was a train order signal for the N&W as well. It would always flash red until a train approached and whistled for that signal. If there were no orders the BN Target operator would switch it to green.

Roger

The plate on the semaphore must be to block light from the lamp housing from interfering the GM&O approach traffic.

--Jim Baker

Thanks for posting these Roger. I always enjoy seeing photos from my hometown line, the Dwight branch. I tell people that Lacon is on the end of a branch of a branch line since it split from the "main" at Varna. I've only seen a couple photos of the line to Lacon including one that shows what is said to be the last train to leave town consisting of a white and orange SW8 and a bulkhead flat car.
Sean in Lacon IL

Posted from Android

Tired of black and white? Never. Many of your photos look book-worthy. Those who grew up on color movies and color TV don't realize that black and white was the standard for TV and newsreels. For many older railfans, we are blessed with the ability to appreciate both the world of color photography and the world of black and white photography.
Keep on posting your images.
Bob

Great photos!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Q4960 Wrote:
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> Hope you're not getting tired of the old black and
> whites...any way...

NEVER!!!!!!




The engineer asked if I
> wanted to ride in the cab, along with the section
> men but the conductor vetoed the idea.
>
> Roger Holmes


Some of you west coast folks that have been through Oceano, CA. remember the two passenger cars that sit on a lot on Hiway 1. When those two cars came into Guadalupe around 1979-1981, my brakin' partner, Rick Bacon, and I went out in the yard to start bleeding off the cuts of cars that had been set out over the weekend for us to switch and spot and line up for the night Lompoc hauler. We were walking down towards the west end of the yard when we came upon those two cars for Oceano. We got up on the rear platform, opened the door and went in. Holy crap!!!! What a frickin' MESS! There was trash piled a foot deep all over the inside of the car. We stood there for about 2 minutes and then walked out. When we got back on the ground, an older gentleman walked up and introduced himself and said he was the owner of the cars. He said he was having them taken to Oceano, where he was converting them to a restaurant. He asked if we were taking the to Oceano that morning, to which we replied in the affirmative, and he told us where he wanted the spotted. Okay, we said. THEN, he asks us the big question: Can I ride them to Oceano? If I had been the Conductor, HELL yes, you can. But, I wasn't the Conductor. We had a great guy as a Conductor, but he was one of the wormiest Conductors I'd ever worked with. I went over to the yard office and told him the story and asked if he could ride the cars. "Under no circumstances" he replied. So I had to go back and tell Mr Sales that he wouldn't be able to ride them. The funny thing is, Mr Sales had about 35 years more experience riding those cars than did our Conductor. He had been a car porter for an eastern RR for almost 45 years and always wanted to buy a couple of cars and make a restaurant out of them.


V

SLOCONDR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/12 19:27 by SLOCONDR.

Now, that is some great stuff...

You emphasize the point that it's all crap now !

Yukon Yeti