Warren
Talmage Jct. Even had a small signal circut operated from a shack there.
It is in the middle of nowhere Iowa.
The Des Moines line you would go from a Q Milepost to a Wabash Milepost so
often they were not in sequence. If a meet was made at Knoxville the siding
was so far from the main you could not idenify the meet and had a lot of
trees and brush between the lines.
sjh
----- Original Message -----
From: liljop <wulrich@a...>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 10:56 PM
Subject: [BRHSlist] Re: Document Question?
> --- In BRHSlist@y..., "steam5356" <steam5356@y...> wrote:
> >
> > My Grandpa carried in his wallet, a card. In bold letters is says
> > Wabash Railroad Company. It certifies that he passed examination of
> > operating rules and instructions pertaining to the duties of :
> > Engineer C,B,& Q,. It's dated: Ottumwa, Oct 21 1958. It's signed
> by
> > two examiners and Grandpa.
> >
> > First what was the connection between the Wabash and the Q??
> > Did all engineers have this certificate,or would it have to do
> with
> > the conversion from steam engineer to diesel somehow??
> >
> > Would love to hear any thoughts on this card. Thanks alot!
>
> when you hired out on the west ottumwa division you were given 3 rule
> books. first of course was cb&q, second was wabash and third was
> chicago greatwestern. reason for wabash was Q ran on wabash from
> albia to tracy, going from ottumwa to des moines. reason for cgw was
> Q ran on greatwestern from des moines to main line at thayer, (gee
> hope its thayer, just spaced it) running from des moines to creston.
> this dreaded job was called 'the night run.' as pete has stated you
> needed to be tested on and understand the operating rules of the host
> railroad you were operating on. yes all engineers/firemen and
> conductors/brakemen would have this book of rules certificate. this
> was done every 2 years.
>
> quick example of different operating practices on the wabash. first
> for trains of equal class, superiority by direction was reversed,
> south bound on Q had rights over northbound, but at the meets at
> sheahan (on the wabash)southbound Q trains took the siding to wait
> for northbound traffic. another small thing was the orders. Q orders
> would tell you to take siding a meet so many trains, with engine
> numbers so and so for each train. wabash orders would tell you to
> meet train no XXX. thats it. could be 1, 2 or three trains running
> ahead of wabash xxx, was not mentioned on their orders. another
> difference Q train engine number was first unit and number boards
> were lit on first unit, wabash could have any unit in the consist as
> train number such as extra 1961 north, number boards would be lit on
> 1961 but could not/would not be the first unit as we were used to on
> the Q. when i hired out my dad told/ordered me, you never goto sleep
> at sheahan. get off and walk around, do anything. guess there had
> been crews where all nodded off and something went by, and did not
> get the engine number. knowing the wabash, was it the train you were
> looking for or another on running ahead of it. get on phone and call
> operator at albia? then whole world knew everyone was/had been
> asleep! there were ways to word it, forget now, but every one still
> knew!
>
> believe the road change from wab to Q or Q to wab just north of
> lovillia where the track made a jog, but it was all dispatched by the
> wabash. think there is/was a marker to tell mow where line of
> seperation was between railroads. believe the passing track at bussey
> was the old wabash main, don't quote me on this as has been almost 40
> years. in the early 60's you could still see the old unused grade.
> don't know if its still there today or not.
>
> more than you wanted to know,
> warren
>
>
>
>
>
>
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