Bob, don't forget that the mighty Mississippi did quite a lot of damage to
the Q on the Illinois side at Burlington, Ia. I was to arrive at a college
in Fairfield, Ia. in June 1965(you know to stay out of the draft) and we had
to cross the river at Rock Island and travel south to Burlington to get back
on US 34. Would you have any idea where the trains would haved detoured to,
Ft Madison, Quincy, Rock Island? Oh well your message about your summer of
1965 reminded me of this event.
---- Original Message -----
From: <amtrak347@a...>
To: <BRHSlist@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 12:24 AM
Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] CB&Q units in Milwaukee
> Hi Ron, Bob Bullermann & list -
> Wanted to point out that the major "washout" on the LaCrosse Division in
the
> spring of 1965 was between East Winona, WI (GB&W crossing) and Winona
> Junction, WI (C&NW crossing) so any move @ North LaCrosse to the "Q" would
> have been impractical as the line was severed 29 miles to the north. I
spent
> the majority of the summer of '65 as the "relief operator" at the newly
> established and temporary "tower" @ East Winona covering vacations of the
> regularly assigned operators (4). Prior to the flood, this had been
double
> track ABS territory and after the flood, the Q single track CTCed it
between
> E. Winona & Winona Jct. (Mayo Clinic stop); in addition, E. Winona also
> handled the CTC at Trevino-Mears where the "Q" single tracked over the Eau
> Claire (?) River. I was told by the operators @ "E. Wye" while
"breaking-in"
> that the "Northerns" re-joined the "Q" at Winona Junction where they had
> arrived via the C&NW. I don't recall the exact details of the move at the
> "Junction" but I believe there was a "south leg of the wye" connection
> between the C&NW and the Q which necessitated the reversing of the power
> (running around their train) which resulted in the train running backwards
to
> the Twin Cities and visa-versa on the eastward trains; this would explain
the
> "back-to-back" lash-up of the E units. I was never an "eyewitness" to
this
> move, as by the time I arrived (late May '65) the new single track CTC was
in
> use. An Aurora Division engineer I worked with years later by the name of
> "Don" McLaughlin, confirmed that he did "fire" the Northerns to Winona
> Junction via the North Western (part way?) and did state that it was an
all
> day trip (16 hr law still in effect) but that it did pay well. The cause
of
> the massive wash-out was due to the fact that the land to the north of the
Q
> ROW was federal land and the "Feds" would not allow culverts under the
> tracks to drain into Federal lands. The River showed the government where
it
> could go and after rebuilding, culverts were permitted. As I recall,
there
> were 4 or 5 passenger trains a day, each way by East Winona; Morning
Zephyr,
> North Coast Limited, Empire Builder, Afternoon Zephyr and the "milk run",
the
> Blackhawk and not a damned one slowed down for the GB&W crossing, 20 feet
> from my "tower"! Every morning, the section foreman and his gang were out
> there with their pitch forks, lining bars and jacks, "aligning" the
diamond
> according to the hand signs given by the well-trained eye of the foreman,
who
> was 50 yards up the track. Every morning the GB&W would
> double/triple/quadruple its one and only eastbound train, #2, out of their
> yard in Winona, MN, across the Q's Mississippi River bridge (Winona Bridge
> Co.) and keep me guessing as to whether or not they needed the signal to
> complete their double and yet clear the passenger trains without delay.
> Throw in the Q's Winona switcher, a daily work train dumping rip-rap and
the
> GB&W work trains, there was lots of action out in po-dunk. After the
> vacation relief work was completed, I spent the last week of the summer
down
> at the Aurora freight house reloading boxcars that were derailed at the
> Fairview Avenue interlocking (Snuffy train). Quite a summer for me. By
the
> late fall, the machines at East Winona "Tower" (I forgot to mention that
it
> was a wooden shed perched on the ground) were moved to the old passenger
> depot at North LaCrosse.
> Bob Campbell
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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