Hello, Marshall.
> I've never been there, Bill - simply heard the
> account from some of the maintenance people who had
> to deal with it - but I believe it *is* somewhere
> west of Albia. The guys referred to it as "The
> Albia Pumper".
Boy, did you bring back memories! As I told Warren in
another post, I remember one of my junior high
teachers
telling me in class that the South Track was built to
enable the eastbound trains to avoid the Pumper.
Occasionally, though, an eastbound would come up the
hill and take the regular eastbound main at Maxon.
Were the diesels on those trains working hard or not?
I often wondered if they would hold together without
blowing, as race car engines do on occasion.
Another interesting fact concerning the Pumper. I
rode
the Nebraska Zephyr back and forth between Fairfield
and Albia when I was attending Parsons College. The
westbound NZ always had about a quarter-mile of
head-end cars between the diesels and the articulated
train set. Three E units was de rigeur. BUT.. on the
eastbound NZ, there were generally only 4 or 5
head-end
cars between the diesels and the passenger set.
Again,
3 E units were de rigeur; however, they used 4 units
almost as often. So apparently it was far easier to
go
DOWN the Pumper than it was going UP the thing.
One more thing: This might qualify as overkill. When
I was in high school in Albia, on my way home from
school one day, I saw the eastbound NZ roll through
town. Its consist cntained six items -- <2> E units,
a baggage car, and three passenger cars, including one
dome. One-third of the entire train consisted of
power units!
The Albia Pumper was difficult to navigate, but I
never
suspected that it was THAT difficult!
Bill
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