Scott, hello again
I was in Lincoln briefly when my dad, a telegrapher, worked an extra board
trick for a few months. This was in the mid thirties, when they were still
switching with steam locomotives. I could always hear them swithching from
our house, which was somewhere around 20th and K.
My best recollection of a steam locomotive was at Inland, between Harvard
and Hastings on the Denver line. We lived in the depot, where dad was
agent/operator. He let me stay up late one night for an eastbound freight
that he had an order for. It was a dark night, and you could see the
headlight as the train moved out of Hastings. It moved along below the
horizon for a ways, rounded a distant curve, and began to increase slowly in
intensity. As it neared us the light kept getting brighter,
and almost blinding when it got close, and the ground begain to shake. There
was a crescendo of light, sound, and rumble that was breathtaking. There's
no experience I can remember that was equal to the sudden explosion of that
5600 hitting the platform at 55 miles an hour. I was standing crushed
against the station,
both terrorized and mesmerized by speed and sound of the train 12 feet away.
My dad was out there with an order 3 feet from the track.
My dad always said it wasn't the diesels that revolutionized railroading, it
was the northern. He was at Fairmont when he had the first O5 come through.
There are tough curves between Lincoln and Crete. Heavy westbounds coming
out of Lincoln have a tough time getting up to speed going upgrade. Most
long freights usually had double-headed mikes still struggling coming through
Fairmont, still trying to get going. His first O5 came through going west
pulling 128 cars at 55 miles and hour.
To him, the O5 was the greatest thing that ever happeded to railroading.
Nice to hear from you.
Dale Reeves
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