--- In BRHSlist@y..., Bill Chambers <ace1942us@y...> wrote:
> Hello, Marshall.
>
> I often wondered if they would hold together without
> blowing, as race car engines do on occasion.
they are running at approx 950 rpm wide open. they just make
alot of noise with no mufflers. you can look at the mainshaft and
watch it turn when they are wide open. they are really loud back in
the e and f units. some older good firemen were very hard of hearing.
>
> 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.
>
some eastbound passenger/mail trains did stop at albia and the
only way to get an eastbound to the depot was up the north hill.
(well you could go eb to maxon crossover to wb and back thru ctc and
into albia) in the 60s think eb 8 & 12 worked the albia depot with
mail and passenger. don't think 30 did, and do not think either 18
and 10 did, plus 14 for sure did not. do not believe the pumper was
the reason these trains, 8 & 12, were put over to the north hill.
i worked 6 yrs on the west ottumwa and my dad worked 47 yrs and
never heard of the albia pumper. realizing my dad passed away in
1967 and i quit in 1969, so before this time i have never heard it
mentioned. now there was a bad place in the westbound main on
further west (can not recall its location now) (the Q spent a
fortune on this one trying to get it fixed) and also was a bad place
on the des moines branch too. my dad was involved in a turnover in
1927 on this one.
bill, think we are getting this pumper before the horse, so to
speak, as believe this thread started about BN coal trains producing
this bad spot around albia that the Q did not have any trouble with.
so what you are recalling in your commutes to parsons college was
normal Q operations on the west ottumwa division at this time.
by the way bill, why didn't you just drive your new ferrarri, or ac
cobera, or lotus, or austin-martin DB, or corvette, or jaguar or
lamborgini to fairfield to class like all the other students instead
of taking the train. were they all in the shop or was hiway 34
closed??? <LOL> <slaping knee laughing>
for the rest of the group parsons college in the mid to late 60's
was a last chance school for all the spoilt little backeast upnorth
yankee boys who got kicked out of the ivy schools and no other ivy
school would take them. parsons would take them for a price, that
was high tuition i believe. had several iowa friends who went
there. it was an excellent school, hired excellent staff, believe
many had authored their textbooks.
>
> 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!
>
just the train without the mail cars as mail contract was probably
canceled by that time and had to work the passenger power back east.
believe the rule of thumb (we will be corrected here) was one e unit
for 4 cars, omaha to chicago.
>
> The Albia Pumper was difficult to navigate, but I
> never
> suspected that it was THAT difficult!
>
> Bill
>
warren
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