I worked as the first trick operator at Connett after the washout. There was a
switch shanty that had a porch which hung over the water because the water was
lapping at the end of the ties. This shanty was used by the operator and
flagman. Dave Tingley was of them. I forget who else was there from Galesburg.
I never copied so many train orders both 19 and 31 during the three or four
weeks I worked there. They drove piles from both end towards the center. The
Eastbound CZ was the first train across the trestle. They never braced it from
bent to bent so when #18 went across it swayed back and forth (East to West). A
loading dock was set up in Gladstone (Happy Rock) and rip rap was dumped into
air dumps and then taken down to the washout and dumped. I believe around 800
loads were taken before the rock started showing through the water. I would
usually ride the work train down to the wash out and catch the headend of
something back to Gladstone. I missed the work train one morning and borrowed
the track riders motor car (Jim McDowell) he got worried when his car wasn't
where it should have been. I pushed that d--n thing almost a quarter of a mile
before I realized I hadn't turned the gas shutoff on. On another occassion I
rode a bicycle down the middle of the tracks, I made it about half way and then
laid it along the ROW and the work train picked it up and took it back to
Gladstone.
Who remembers the truck mounted crane (USAF) that bounced off a flatcar just
East of Illinois Jct. and tumbled down the enbankment on the Southside? After
having retrived said truck mounted crane the 250 Ton wrecker 204376 from
Galesburg tumbled down the enbankment on the Northside after the operator
pulled in the out riggers and was turning the machine to put the boom in the
boom car.? I wonder if Mike Spoor has any pictures of either event in his new
book?
Lenny
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