Nostalgia & History > The Real California Zephyr Again

The California bound California Zephyr on the CB&Q in the Montgomery, Illinois Interlocking Plant on September 12, 1964.  Shot from the tower.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard

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Great shot Marty of the Silver Lady......How much you want to bet that Metals company is not there anymore!!!!!

Lyon Metal Products, High School Lockers, 

Marty,

Thanks for yet another fine photo of a fabulous train! It is impressive to note that while summer is pretty much over, the "CZ" shown still has 12 cars and a trio of E-units. The second to the last car appears to be an off-line sleeper. I always loved my trips on the famous Burlington (BN,BNSF) "Three track speedway," my favorite of all the rail routes into or out of Chicago.

Thanks again...

ShastaDaylight

My ex-wife called it the Silver Zephyr.

Adam

OUTSTANDING!  thanks for posting.......

66

Nice to see a sixties CZ consist with all silver cars....by 1964 it seemed GN, SP and other foreign cars were becoming more common.  Can anyone tell what the second car is?  Perhaps one of the 16-section sleepers that were converted to flattop coaches?  Haven't seen a pic of CZ car with skirting above the wheels removed while the rest remains in place.

Dave

Just love your shots Marty.

bluesboyst Wrote:
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> Great shot Marty of the Silver Lady......How much
> you want to bet that Metals company is not there
> anymore!!!!!

Take that bet Marty!
SR

Wow, just a great photo! Wish I coulda ridden it back. I was living in Chicago at the time ...

Another terrific shot of vitamin Q on the east end; I'm addicted.  I always enjoy your shots.  Looks like the restricting signals are turned.  Was the interlocker going through a signal revision at that time?   Thanks again for your post.

IC1038west

IC1038west Wrote:
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> Another terrific shot of vitamin Q on the east
> end; I'm addicted.  I always enjoy your shots. 
> Looks like the restricting signals are turned. 
> Was the interlocker going through a signal
> revision at that time?

Indeed it was, being in the process of being remoted to the CTC panel at what was then "House 9" in Cicero.

Barely two weeks later (Sept. 27, 1964) a disasterous head-on collision occured here between the westbound Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr and a detouring Rock Island passenger train coming off the Fox River Branch. The investigation revealed that the partially-disassembled interlocking allowed the impossible to happen, namely a clear signal for the westbound Q train while the junction switch was reversed, sending the Ak-Sar-Ben head-on into the standing RI train at speed.

Our original poster, Marty Bernard, has an excellent synopsis of this wreck along with photo at the following link:
http://railfan44.blogspot.com/2014/01/major-passenger-train-wreck-montgomery.html

There was also an article in the October 1965 TRAINS magazine, entitled "The Accident That Couldn't Happen".

NZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 15:04 by NebraskaZephyr.

I was working the tower the day I took that picture.  I was substituting for the vacationing second trick leverman.  The tower was fully functional as an a mechanical Interlocking. 

The night of the wreck I was back in college (about 15 miles away). There was a note on one of the levers telling the leverman something like don't pull this one without closing that one.  He pulled this one without closing that one, i.e., set the signal to high green for straight through the plant but with turnout 14 lined for the branch.  In other words the Interlocking Plant had a fault.  The leverman should have never been able to set the signal.  What the leverman did was what was normal, what he no doubt had done for years for this move. 

I heard about it and the next morning went to Montgomery and took the pictures in my blog NebraskaZephyr mentioned.  I even went up in the tower and talked to the first trick leverman.  What a shitty day.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 16:12 by MartyBernard.

Bad, bad deal.  So switch 14 was in the middle of conversion at the time of the incident?  Was the Saxby-Farmer hardware being eliminated or just updated?  52mph impact into a detouring RI train.  It really makes me nervous about transition signaling.

DavidP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice to see a sixties CZ consist with all silver
> cars....by 1964 it seemed GN, SP and
> other foreign cars were becoming more common. 
> Can anyone tell what the second car is?  Perhaps
> one of the 16-section sleepers that were converted
> to flattop coaches?  Haven't seen a pic of CZ car
> with skirting above the wheels removed while the
> rest remains in place.
>
> Dave

The second car is one of the prewar Q coaches. They had the skirting cut back over the trucks.  
Wonderful photo.
BSB 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 16:03 by BigSkyBlue.

In my photo above the CZ is approaching on the same track and direction as the combined Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr and American Royal Zephyr was that night a couple of weeks later.


IC1038west Asked:
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> Was the
> Saxby-Farmer hardware being eliminated or just
> updated?

My memory says the plant was being converted to CTC but my blog does not say that.  So I'm not sure what the upgrade was.  In his comment above NebraskaZephyr says it was undergoing a conversion to CTC which makes sense since the East End was CTC and so was the Aurora to Savanna line.  Montgomery is the first interlocking west of Aurora on the double track line to Galesburg.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 16:18 by MartyBernard.

Thanks, Marty.  I went to your post that NZ provided and appreciate the detail on the incident. I was a little young for the Montgomery, IL incident, but I believe the Illinois Central used the Saxby-Farmer equipment at Monee, Kankakee, Otto, Ashkum and Gilman, Il before Eddie Moyers "carved and starved" the  multiple track between Homewood, IL, and NOL.  But back to your original shot; it's great!  Thanks again. 

IC1038west
 

That is a CB&Q pre-war coach as mentioned in this thread.  Without looking at the timetable for that era, there is a good chance that is the Chicago to Grand Junction coach that was set out from train 17 and picked up by 18 going back to Chicago, that provided additional coach seats for a while.

RRMike Wrote:
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> Lyon Metal Products, High School Lockers, 

Kids don't have lockers anymore. They must tote overweight backpacks.

Tom Y

What an exciting shot. Those were the days.... 
Thanks again Marty. I've had my Q fix for a few days.