Tom Mack advises me that the four motors trailing 166C in my 3rd photo
are NOT greybacks, but rather some of the GN F-units the Q was leasing
that year. They didn't look quite right to me, but I attributed it to
angle, lighting, and fuzziness of the image. Clearly Tom's eyes (and
his historical knowledge) are better than mine!
Jonathan
PS: I won't spoil the surprise, but stay tuned for some truly awesome
stuff coming soon!
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Jan Kohl <kohlj@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for sharing, Jonathan, great photos!
>
> Cheers!
>
> Jan Kohl
>
> bigbearoak wrote:
> > I just posted a few more photos in the Oregon folder in our Photos
> > section. These are from the same fan trip - a way freight with 5632 on
> > June 23(?), 1962. I know Tom Mack and Dave Sarther, at least, are
> > modeling this area and were interested in the look of the land back
> > then. I wish I had more showing the immediate vicinity of the depot,
> > but apparently that crummy black & white I posted a year ago was the
> > the only one. Hopefully, these will be of some small use.
> >
> > The first shot is taken from the same highway overpass as the b&w
> > photo, but looking westbound. 5632 is on the Mt. Morris track, and you
> > can see the beginning of the branch heading off to the right. Our
> > engine is backing up to retrieve a BE-1 express car, which has been
> > spotted at the beginning of the branch. Don't know whether it was
> > empty or loaded, but in either case this was the only 'freight' we
> > had on our return trip to Chicago that day (outbound we had
> > considerably more).
> >
> > The next two shots are at the opposite (east) end of the 'yard' (yes,
> > I know, technically it wasn't one), just east of the depot. You can
> > see a couple of the sheds there and glimpse some of the cars and
> > equipment on the tracks at that end. The first shot shows what I take
> > to be the Empire Builder, led by 9947. Just behind and to the left of
> > the E8 you can barely see the Mt. Morris/Oregon switcher.
> >
> > The last photo shows 5 greybacks, led by F7 166C coming through with a
> > long freight. At the far right you can see just a tiny bit of the Rock
> > River bridge. And let me tell you, that train was moving! Seven or 8
> > years ago, I posted a story about it, which I'll repeat here, now that
> > I've found the photo.
> >
> > 5632 had picked up its return load, and we were waiting to reboard our
> > train, milling around, taking pictures, inspecting the engine, and
> > exploring the site. As you can see in the b&w photo, the grounds and
> > tracks around the depot were full of people. Suddenly I saw the
> > engineer push his way through the crowd, shoving people shoving left
> > and right out of his way, and dash up the ladder into the cab.
> > Immediately he let out a series of short ear-splitting blasts on the
> > whistle. Since I was just 14 then and a neophyte railfan, I didn't get
> > it at first. But it didn't take more than a few seconds to see the
> > cause of his alarm. This long manifest freight suddenly appeared out
> > of the trees on the opposite side of the river (I don't think anyone
> > heard or saw it coming - not sure they could have), and was already
> > barreling onto the east end of the bridge. I don't know the train's
> > speed, but it was closing on us REALLY FAST. Needless to say, everyone
> > scattered. There was one kid who was left on the track alone, frozen
> > temporarily, probably unsure about which way to run. He did get out of
> > danger in time, but only by a matter of seconds.
> >
> > The moral here is that even though we were all supposedly
> > railroad-savvy, none of us heard or saw that train coming; nor could
> > the oncoming freight have seen us until it was way too late to stop or
> > even slow down much. Had it not been for our engineer's urgency, we
> > could easily have seen a major tragedy. More recently this incident
> > also made me think about the rather arcane system of signals (i.e.,
> > whistles) used on American railroads. I'm told that European railroads
> > (on the Continent, at least) don't use anything so complex. I've never
> > known how the American system of long and short whistles came into
> > being, whether it was related to Morse Code or something else. But
> > whatever their origin, the alarm signal seems to be an exception. It
> > needs no interpretation, but touches on something much more basic -
> > deeper even than human consciousness. It's actually the same signal my
> > parrot uses when he sees a hawk or a cat out the window - a series of
> > very short, very loud bursts, repeated over and over until you know
> > it's heard: an instant attention grabber with no ambiguity - the most
> > essential information conveyed in the least amount of time.
> >
> > -Jonathan
> >
> >
> >
>
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