Nostalgia & History > BB: Avery, ID MILW boxcabs, Joe, engine house, turntable view

Bruce Black really loved Avery, ID and his photo coverage of it showed it, capturing the MILW there from many angles ....

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Bruce took yearly trips to his beloved Milwaukee Road.  In those days he'd stop at the open stations and check with agents on train line-ups.  He would chase a Milwaukee Road train for a day or two-hard core photographer-!

Valmont-Thanks for posting Bruce Black images.

Nice!
 

BEAUTIFUL !!!

Can certainly understand why BB loved Avery,
Wis I had made it there,
ALLEN

Photo taken in Fall of 1971.

Best regards,

Rob L.

Super image!

The Joe comes in on 261, gets cut off then goes to the roho where it is turned on the turntable. It waits at the roundhouse until an Alberton crew come to get it to switch a 264 fill out of the west yard or a 262 arrives and it is added to that train. The crew that switches the 264 fill takes the Joe to the depot and grabs a lunch at the beanery. When the 262 arrives they put it on the train and head out of town to protect their initial terminal delay earned while switching. Another crew comes on duty and doubles the 264 together and cuts in one of the boxcab helper sets to head to Alberton.

Working the 264 trains in Avery was the first place a conductor handed me the wheel report and said, "You figure it out, I'ii catch the cars." All the yard tracks in Avery were downhill so cars were switched with air though there were some short moves which could be made with cars bled off. You might bottle the air on 3-5 cars and pull the pin when the engine stopped and the slack ran in. The man in the field would spring the air on the car clear of the lead and the cars would go into emergency and stop. If you were lucky they would stop at the joint, if not the cars were bled off and gravity made the joint. It was the field man's job to hook up air hoses and bleed cars as needed.

It was good work if you could find it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/18 15:35 by fbe.