Lenny and list,
I have some film footage of the '65 flood, but not of anything railroad.
I've always wanted to see a picture of the high water there at Connett. I
do have photos ( not slides) of the 250 ton derrick on it's side at Illinois
Jct. If anyone is interested, I'll steer you on to them off list.
Bill----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Ohrnell" <wohrnell@s...>
To: "BRHS" <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 8:42 PM
Subject: [BRHSlist] 1965
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> 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.
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> 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?
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> Lenny
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