>> One other thing: Were there ever problems with units
freezing in the winter? I used to live in the north
suburbs of Chicago, and know that the Q, Northwestern,
Milwaukee, and possibly the Rock Island kept their
commuting diesels out in the open coupled to their
dinkies. <<
You should be chairman of the "Good Questions Committee", Bill! Since I lived
in or near Q territory for almost 2/3 of my life, I should probably know the
answer to that one - but I don't <sigh> . . . another place where we're lucky
that BRHSlist has a lot of ex-railroaders to keep us amateurs straight!
I *do* know the following, though - for locomotives which might have extended
shut-down times (such as branchline service GPs and SDs or some switchers, the
Q installed "overnight" heaters (the box-and-stack arrangement behind the cab)
which served to keep the engine coolant from freezing during shut-down. *IF*
such a heater were built into a freight or passenger "covered wagon", your only
external clue would be an extra stack in the roof somewhere. On the other hand,
none of the CB&Q cab-unit diagrams I have indicate the presence of an extra
heater.
One other Q-fact may come into play here. The CB&Q had a unit-usage program
that was a model for the industry. By swiftly re-assigning an incoming unit to
commuter duty, for instance, the engine never shut down for any length of time
- it just kept making money. Real down-time for mainline units (which included
virtually all the covered wagons) was not common. If units are only shut down
for maintenance or repair, you don't have a freezing problem.
You mentioned a unit-freezing incident on the Rock Island in 1968. The Rock
Island in its last few decades (sorry, RITS co-subscribers) was a rather poorly
managed road, and had inherited problems as well. For one thing, it was
unit-rich and assignment-poor by 1968. Extended engine shut-down without
protection is what causes the problem you described - I had a similar thing
occur while riding Amtrak's Lake Cities in 1979. The train was maxed (it was
the week of Five Mile Island, and lots of people had decided to re-route away
from Phillie) and they had pulled both extra cars and an extra unit. We were
well out of NYC but still unable to make speed when they finally discovered
that one unit had automatically shut down from overheat. It was the added unit,
and it was frozen. We were held for over two hours in Albany until a fresh unit
could be added . . .
Marshall Thayer
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