Nostalgia & History > The WABASH "Red Ball" and my home town......

Hi Everyone, and Thanks Todd-

The WABASH did everything in a HURRY!

Their famous "Red Ball" service was well chronicled......

Before my arrival here on this earth, WABASH 2821 East, rips through Oak Lawn, Illinois; the crew is less than 10 minutes from tying up at Landers Yard, in Chicago......

"Follow The Flag"!

Bob Finan

---

Was that one of the 4-8-2's or 4-8-4's? I forget the numbering, thanks. Mechanically, they were really close.

Thank you...and I like the logo!

It appears to be a "Lionel" type with the row of lights on the post as well as the flashers. Saw a similar signal on the Wabash line across N. Indiana when I was a kid. Think it was in Walcott, Ind. Anyway, the hiway crossing there was protected with a signal like that.

chico wrote:

> It appears to be a "Lionel" type with the row of lights on
> the post as well as the flashers. Saw a similar signal on the
> Wabash line across N. Indiana when I was a kid. Think it was
> in Walcott, Ind. Anyway, the hiway crossing there was
> protected with a signal like that.

You probably mean Wolcottville, Indiana. The row of crossing lights would spell "STOP". Only one from the Wabash is left that I know of. It is owned by a museum in Montpelier, Ohio and it operates. The 4-8-2\'s were known as Twenty-Eight-Hundreds and the 4-8-4\'s as "Twenety-Nine-Hundreds" by railroaders. These Baldwins were the M-1 and O-1 class respectively. My uncle lived across the tracks in Wolcottville. The biggest road power on the 4th District here were the 2800\'s but once in a blue moon a 2900 might show up. Uncle John told me about an incident where a train powered by a 2800 had to reach a ways into one of the interchange tracks but the engineer didn\'t want to do it. He was certain the engine would derail. The dispatcher told him to do it. Guess what happened?