An interesting (to me anyway) event was recalled as I wrote about "shaking" air
dumps to promote a more complete unloading of the contents.
When the RR ran into LaSalle, IL. it followed the Vermillion River for a
considerable distance. In several locations bends in the river caused quite a
bit of scouring of the banks on which the RR was built. In order to prevent the
tracks from sliding into the river it was necessary to dump material into the
river to replace that which had been washed away. The tracks were, in many
places, 20 or more feet above the water.
Number 85, the local, would often bring half a dozen loaded air dumps into town
filled with yard cleanings and other "surplus" material. The LaSalle switch
engine would haul these cars up the river on the way to Marquette Cement and
dump the material into the river at the most needed spots. One morning we got
hold of a string of these cars for this purpose when I happened to notice one
car with a tree growing in it. The load had, apparently, been in the car for
quite some time. Anyway, we left town and headed up river. When we got to the
place where the cars were to be dumped the section was waiting for us. We cut
the air dumps away from the rest of the train and "screwed up" the air in
preparation for dumping.
The first few cars dumped their loads without incident. Now comes the "tree".
It soon became obvious that the car really didn't want to dump. After several
attempts the car body slowly lifted to the dumping position. The position of
the car body was the only change that occurred. The tree was now at a 45 degree
angle to the horizon and still in the car, as was the entire load. "Shake 'em".
Ray, the Engineer, was quite adept at "shaking" things, even things not needing
to be "shook". Well, a few back and forth moves of the engine and cars produced
nothing of consequence. No problem. We'll cut the engine off, pull up a ways
and hit 'em a little. Still the tree and load refused to leave the car. The
same move was repeated, this time pulling the engine a bit further away from
the cars so as to get a better "run" at it. Crash! The tree refused to budge.
Third time's a charm. Ray pulled ahead about 5 car lengths this time. The "run"
we took at it this time it was met with dubious success. The tree and the load
most assuredly ended up in the river but, so also did the car. It looked like a
slow-motion movie as the car jumped up into the air and began to lean toward
the river. As it went down the bank the lower side of the car, along with its
trucks, all separated and hit the water in different locations. The Foreman in
charge was heard to express his satisfaction be saying, "we got THAT load out,
no?
If anybody goes cruising down the Vermillion in a boat they might want to be on
the lookout for a submerged CB&Q 220XXX somewhere between the old barge loading
facility and a point about two miles upstream. It's also pretty close to the
spot where the section Foreman buried a Fairmont motorcar.
Karl
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