#4960 was used in Savanna during the flood of '65 to move Zephyrs through the
floodwaters of the yards .... Jim Boyd has related this story in Railfan
magazine more than once since he was chasing flood trains and came to the
intersection at Mount Carroll and agonized over whether to go west to Savanna
to see if anything was running but he didn't think that could be possible so
he went north and caught a Milwaukee detour on the CGW and all the while the
#4960 was "sailing" Zephyrs through the floodwaters. At least that's how I
remember him telling the story. Supposedly no railfans have shots of this
event and the only photograph taken was by a newspaper photographer and it
appeared in the Dubuque paper. At the same time, according to Boyd, a
privately owned IC 2-8-0 was fired up in Clinton to switch out ADM so a
shutdown wouldn't occur.
I suspect that was the final time Q steam was used in true revenue service
for the railroad. Nationally, the UP will occasionally use their steamers on
a true revenue freight. #3985 replaced something like 3 Dash 8s on a full
length stack train in Nebraska one time (done at the request of APL Lines for
company photographs) and maybe 5 years ago #844 was volunteered into helper
service up Archer Hill when one of the diesels in a train ahead of #844 shut
down.
Speaking of UP steam program ... coolest thing I've ever seen a steamer do
was during the UP #844 run from Chicago to Clinton, IA a few years ago.
Setup to do two runbys at Nelson for riders. Train backs up and get going
with smoke everywhere ... engine gets to the road crossing in front of
railfans doing maybe 35 or 40 ... engineer hauls out on throttle to create a
tremendous wheelspin (really a burnout!) while going over crossing. Just
AWESOME!
Mike Martin / Peoria Heights, IL
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