Tom O'dell is a locomotive engineer on BNSF's Big Horn Sub. and runs
between Sheridan, Wy. and Laurel, Mt. He will be retiring soon- but
currently he is the last remaining former CB&Q train service employee on the
Powder River Division. He stops in to visit me about once a month when he is
laying over in Laurel to see what's new in the way of CB&Q books and HO
locomotives. I always pump him about what it was like on the Sheridan
Division during the good old days of the 'Q', and he always has some story
to tell. Some are humorous- like the day he was running a four unit set of
'Grayback' F-3's at track speed (49 mph) on a scorching hot summer day and
decided to open the cab doors to let more air flow through the cab and
promptly proceeded to suck their train orders out the door! Fortunately all
3 men in the cab had read the orders, which were quite straight forward,
that time!
I was showing him Stewart's new U25B (CB&Q #100) and he started to tell
me that when the 'Q' received these units, and had assigned them to the
Alliance Division, they couldn't run all the way through to Laurel, Mt. It
seems that maintenance had been deferred longer than it should have been on
certain sections of track between Lodge Grass and Huntley, Mt. where the 'Q'
ran on the NP Mainline through Billings to Laurel. The axle weight on the
four axle U25B was much greater than that of the six axle SD-9's that ran
rampant on 'Lines West', so until track improvements could be made, the U25B
units could not run north of Lodge Grass. Westbound trains coming into
Sheridan, with these units, would climb up and over Parkman Hill and then
wait at Aberdeen (first siding north of Parkman) or Lodge Grass (next siding
north) until the Eastbound Time freight out of Laurel arrived. The two
trains would swap power and the U25B's would return to Sheridan, and on to
Alliance, while the 4 or 5 unit set of SD-9's would return to Laurel. Track
improvements were finally made, but by that time the U25C's were on the
property and with their six axle trucks, were much easier on the rail than
the U25B's. Thought some of you 'Lines West' guys might find this little
tidbit of information interesting.
John Olson
Billings, Mt.
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