Nostalgia & History > A few for the CBQ steam fans

This was my one and only fan trip on the CBQ. In late March I just happened to be passing through Chicago courtesy of the U.S. Navy and saw a flyer for a fan trip posted at Union Station. So I made some last minute changes and on April 1, 1962 for $10 rode behind the 4960 and 5632 to Savana and return. The first two images appear to be a water stop at Aurora, but I have no idea where the third picture was taken. The weather was overcast, my photography skills were primitive, but with the help of Photoshop I have had some fun making these pix reasonably presentable.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/18 10:11 by jbwest.

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Here are two pix of the runby at Mendota, before heading west on the Denrock branch. The second one is highly cropped at it shows. It was starting to snow and the later pix I got were pretty dark. We doubleheaded to Savana on the Denrock branch were the 4960 was taken off and return to Chicago via the mainline with only the 5632.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/18 10:45 by jbwest.

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Very nice. I was too young to know these were happening but your pics make me wish I could have been there. Thanks for sharing!

These are great pics. They would make anyone a CBQ steam fan. I especially like the first one.

Thank you for posting them.

Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY

Very impressive steam shots!
Looked like a fun trip - especially when plenty of the old steam engineers were still around.
Gary

I rode that trip too and have posted some photos. It's nice to see other photos. And you did a good job of bring 55 year old slides back. Thanks for posting them.

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> I rode that trip too and have posted some photos.
> It's nice to see other photos. And you did a good
> job of bring 55 year old slides back. Thanks for
> posting them.
>
> Marty Bernard

Marty, can you provide a link you your pix of this trip. Would be fun to see them.

John

Fine fine stuff. Great CB&Q memories. Thank you for posting. BSB

Pretty darn nice for primitive skills and crappy Illinois weather. I was there at Aurora too. Maybe you photo shopped me out. Thanks for posting these.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

John, my shots are here on TO.

Search:

April 1, 1962 Exact Phrase

martybernard

All Date

These excellent images are very sharp . Thanks for sharing them on T.O.
BTW, what kind of camera and film did you use ?

UP951West Wrote:
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> BTW, what kind of camera and film did you use ?

I was shooting with a Minolta rangefinder 35mm camera using Kodachrome II. It was a good camera with a good 50mm lens, but rough railfan usage had knocked the bright line viewfinder caddywampus, so my framing was way off. Due to the overcast weather the original images were very dark, lacked contrast, and very blue. But Photoshop allowed me to reframe the images, add (a lot of) contrast, and put a bit a color back in. The two images in my second post were processed a long time ago and I probably need to redo them and see if my Photoshop skills have improved since then. In my old age I can have a lot of fun running stuff like this through Photoshop (and thinking about how much better the pix might have been if I had had one of todays digital cameras that deal with poor weather so much better).

JBWX

Whoooo!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

jbwest Wrote: > ... But Photoshop allowed me to ......

Kudos on the fantastic recovery job! And praise to modern digital technology. But you still had to be there with a good eye for the compositions. I like not only the signal bridge shots, but I really like the shot with the old & young fan pair shooting the runby. The 'taking water' shot a classic, as well! Very well done! And a well-deserved IOTD almost 56 years in the making...

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/18 06:26 by santafe199.

"The first two images appear to be a water stop at Aurora, but I have no idea where the third picture was taken."

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that third photo might be Somonauk, based on a comparison of the houses on the left side with a Google street view. There's not much to compare, and obviously much has changed, but the current houses as seen on Google appear to have a similar structure to the ones in your photo. I might be totally off base, but there it is.

That photo in particular is a really beautiful portrait of all that the Q steam trips embodied. Living in the Chicago area at the time, I had the good fortune as a teenager to ride and chase several of those trips between 1964 and 1966, and can simply say they were experiences that will never fade from my memory. Thank you for posting.

Larry

Awesome photo story. The 5632 was one engine I loved as a kid (thank you Brad Miller and Sunday Only). My grandfather got to ride behind her a few times, including the Intermountain Limited in 1963. Alas, the Q's steam program ended before I got the chance. Looking at the photos I see that the 5632 is carrying a different whistle. it looks like it might be a Hancock

Doug Rowland
Philadelphia, PA

I love all the smoke, of course, but what caught my eye was the photo of the Mendota runby showing the entire train. It appears that about halfway back in the consist, there is a whisp of smoking coming from what would be the dining car. I've always been amazed that they operated standard sit-down dining car service on many of these railfan excursions. These trips had it all.