--- In BRHSlist@y..., Steven Holding <hold-on@s...> wrote:
> 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
>
steve, thanks, that is it!, talmage. it is hell to get old. have
heard the name talmage since i was born. yep, it was/is in the middle
of nowhere, nowhere as far as nowhere in iowa can be.
don't remember meets at knoxville. this must of been after the track
rebuild for red rock dam or after the bn started. we most always met
at sheahan, only remember one meet at tracy. think might of started
upgrading/rebuilding the tracy to des moines portion of track to be
moved. Q spent beau coup bucks to rebuild railroad, then govt look at
it and would have to replace roadbed, ties and track with equal
quality when moving the route because of the dam. that time at tracy
#81, ran up the wabash and 82 stayed at tracy and did some work. do
not rembember why we met at tracy instead of the usual sheahan. also
met at bussey, but that was an odd trip.
remembered a couple of things
when i hired out my dad briefed me on the waving at the farm house,
north of, and down the hill from knoxville, on the firemans side
heading toward des moines. the story he told, iirc, was back in the
teens or before, there was a terrible rain and the wife or sister of
the farmer took a lantern and went and checked the bridge at the
bottom of the hill. of course it was washed out. she then startes up,
don't remember which way, but up the hill towards knoxville just
sounds right, and flagged an oncoming Q freight, getting it stopped
successfully, thus saving the headend crew possible injury. the Q
gave her or her family a $25 savings bond, i believe is how the story
went. i was told i *would* either call the highball from the the
farms yard light, or acknowledge with a highball from my flashlight.
this was not a suggestion, *you will*, thats all there was to it.
the older men on the division felt her action had saved some lives.
also was 2 young boys in town at knoxville who always opened the
curtain at the head of their bed and waved with a flashlight at
fireman on 82. this was on the north side of town just after making
it up the hill, think it was 2nd crossing coming into town, would be
coming thru 1030-1100p or so. don't think they, the boys, made it
(stayed awake) till 81 came thru.
warren
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