Hello, Warren.
> they are running at approx 950 rpm wide open. they
> just make alot of noise with no mufflers.... they
are
> really loud back in the e and f units. some older
> good firemen were very hard of hearing.
I can imagine!
What prompted my comment was the memory of some
eastbound freights coming up the hill and going
through
the albia depot.
> 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.
You are right; #8, the Night Mail, and #12, the
Nebraska Zephyr, did visit Albia; they were the only
ones that did. The eastbound Ad-Sar-Ben Zephyr did
NOT
go through the depot, even though the westbound one
did
stop in Albia.
> do not believe the pumper was the reason these
rains,
> 8 & 12, were put over to the north hill.
Of course not. If they didn't go up the hill, they
would have had to make the long backup move from Maxon
that you mentioned.
> 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
Until a few weeks ago, my last time riding on the old
Q
west of Ottumwa was in 1973 on an Amtrak trip to
Oakland, CA.
I noticed something strange on my recent trip. The Q
crossed the Des Moines River on a large, 5-truss
bridge
a few miles west of the Ottumwa depot. I have always
heard the bridge referred to as the "4-Mile Bridge."
When the CZ crossed the river, I noticed that the old
bridge had been removed and a 2-truss installed. Do
you have any idea when this happened, and why the old
bridge was replaced? Also, given that Amtrak and
several freight trains utilize the route, did the
bridge stay open or was traffic rerouted?
> 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>
Boy, didn't I wish!!! The real reason was that I was
injured at birth and it affected my eyesight; so I was
never able to get a driver's license. But even if I
could have driven a hot sports car, I would still have
ridden the Q back and forth. Hot cars have never
excited me like hot diesels do!! And, what hot sports
car could ever compare with the glorious lashups of A
units that the Q used!!
> 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.
Right!! "Last-Chance U" and "Flunk-Out U" were two of
Parsons' better-known sobriquets.
> parsons would take them for a price, that
> was high tuition i believe.
VERY high tuition!
> it was an excellent school, hired excellent staff,
> believe many had authored their textbooks.
Right. I never realized until later how top-drawer
the
Parsons faculty was.
> 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.
No, this was in 1957, 1958, or possibly 1959, so the
mail contract was still in effect. This was when the
NZ utilized the articulated trainset, so possibly the
whole trainset was in the shop.
> believe the rule of thumb (we will be corrected
> here) was one e unit for 4 cars, omaha to chicago.
In 1974, I made an Amtrak trip to New York City. I
caught the San Francisco Zephyr at Ottumwa. The power
consist was 6 units in an A-A-B-A-B-A configuration.
I
wondered, why such a large consist for a train that
generally rated 3 or, at most, 4 units. I found out
why when the Broadway Limited changed from diesel to
electric power at Harrisburg, PA. I saw two diesels
like I had never seen before. Of course, these were
the SDP40F's, and the old E units were going to
Chicago
to be replaced. I never again saw, or rode behind, an
E unit on Amtrak.
I have often wondered, If the Q or Burlington Northern
had remained in the passenger business and there had
been no Amtrak, would they have kept the E units in
good to excellent shape and used them rather than
spend
the money on new power? Somehow, I think they would
have.
Bill
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