Yes Leo, I remember the "great fun" of using hopper
cars with the doors chained and a tie against the
wheels. The "fun" ended when the chain slipped and
about 15 tons of slag went out. The back truck went
"on the ground" and the real work started. The
"improved spreader tie" had a pair of angle bars
spiked to it so the wheels wouldn't cut in too far. I
also remember that slag was pure murder to shovel.
Using what you had was how the Q paid dividends to the
GN and NP.
John D. Mitchell, Jr.
--- qutlx1@a... wrote:
> In general terms on Lines East mainline ballast was
> steel mill slag from the
> mills in N.W. Indiana. For the Chgo and Aurora Div
> the ballast moved to Eola
> in Milw gons(per Wade Gomran in a long ago
> interview) where it was piled into
> mountains in the "slag hole" .Thats approx where
> east yard trks 1,2 and 3 are
> today near the west end of the yard. Look thru one
> of the Mike Spoors Q books
> .I believe its in the frt car book in the w/c
> section. There's a shot of a
> w/c on trk 12 or 13 but it takes in the slag piles.
> From Eola the ballast was
> ditributed in ballast hoppers,idle coal racks,and
> air dumps. Sometimes it
> moved in ballast trains for big gang projects and
> sometimes just a few cars
> for a given sections use.
> Anybody besides me remember spreading ballast out of
> a coal rack using chains
> on the gates and a tie under the wheels? Great fun.
> Spent a good part of an
> afternoon on the Earlville Turn doing this at Plano
> for the new Com Ed spur.
> The gravel came from Sheridan either Moline or
> Consumers.
>
> We usually had a car or two of ballast in the wreck
> train when we went out.
>
> New branch line replacement ballast after the end of
> steam was gravel from
> the various on line pits on the Fox River Branch. I
> remember cars of gravel
> going to Rochelle in the early 70s to lay the new
> Carnation trks. for
> example. Yard replacement ballast was also gravel up
> until the BN started
> bringing in the Granite chips. P.S. that stuff was
> hard on boots and somewhat
> slippery when wet.
>
> I liked the cinder ballast best and there was still
> quite a bit of it in the
> north end of Savanna yard,the east end of the west
> and east yards at Eola and
> various other locations. It was easy to walk
> on,seemed to drain well and was
> for all intents free.
>
> Leo
> P.S. Somewhere in the archives is a photo of a crew
> i was part of doubling up
> Burke Hill with a ballast train.
>
>
>
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