List,
I had the pleasure to work a private car trip this weekend from
Chicago to St. Louis, roundtrip. In our group of cars was the CB&Q
Silver Quail, owned by Bill Butterworth of Shreveport, LA. I was
asked to work this trip by the company who leases the cars, American
Rail Excursions. Anyway, getting on with the story, the Silver Quail
is one of the Q 11 bedroom California Zephyr sleepers. The group
that was on the car were going to spend the weekend in STL and use
the car as their hotel. The cars headed down to STL Friday afternoon
on Amtrak 305, The State House. I was originally asked to go as wait
staff on the other cars on the train. But, as trip time drew near, I
rememebered that I had an original CB&Q conductors hat in my
collection. The hat is one of the later model "bus driver" style
hats. I put it in my bag for CHI and didn't think much about it.
Friday afternoon, as our train and crew was getting ready for
showtime, I happened to pull the hat out of my bag, and my boss saw
it. He asked me if I had a suit to go with it, and yes, I did have a
blue jacket with the BR lapel pin already on it. "Justin, you can be
our conductor tonight going to STL". Having said that, the monster
was created. At 4:30, when we backed down into Union Station to
board, I was a fixture in the vestibule of the Silver Quail. I
boarded the sleeping car passengers in the Quail and then helped to
board the other tour group, the 20th Century Railroad Club on the
other three cars. After the Amtrak conductor highballed us out on
time, it was back out to the vestibule to watch the scenery! The sun
had just gone down, so there was a little light left. Some of the
dinkies were parked in the Metra yard and the signals gleamed off of
our cars. It was as if I had been transported back to the 1950's and
suddenly found myself in passenger service working for the CB&Q! At
Joliet, I got a real taste of the passenger business as we had 14
people to pick up for the private cars. We rolled around the corner
off the IC and onto the UP and Joliet Union Station came into view.
As we started to slow, I opened the bottom of the dutch door and put
the trap up. As soon as we stopped, I was on the ground, stepbox in
hand. We got our passengers boarded and after the last person was
on, I pulled the stepbox, handed it to my boss up the steps and gave
a good, old fashioned highball. The conductor was in her vestibule
and she relayed it onto the engineer. The moment I was back up the
steps, we started to roll! Wow, at 19, I made my first career
station stop as a "Q" conductor. How many people can say they did
that in 2002?? As the trip continued, we were soon approaching
Ridgely Tower in Springfield. A good friend of mine was the operator
that night and was on the ground to get my picture as I pretended to
grab the orders that he was going to "hoop" up to me. The rest of
the trip was uneventful, and Sunday afternoon, we had turned and were
ready to head for Chicago. Between Carlinville and Springfield, I
was walking through the ATSF Mohave, the car entrained behind the
Quail, and had a question from one of the passengers. I went back to
speak with him, and he asked the following: "Is that an original
hat"? Yes, the hat is original. "Where did you get it"? A family
friend was a conductor on the Q. "Do you know where he worked"?
Galesburg and Aurora, the late 50's and early 60's, he did work the
CZ. "So did I, do you know his name"?. Ogle Cross, his nickname
was "double O". "I used to work with 'double O', when did you get
the hat"? I got it when I was 4 or 5, and this is the first chance I
got to wear it. He said that he also used to work the CZ and worked
with Ogle many times. This was really neat, I found a direct link to
the past that I was trying to recreate. It was really nice to know
that someone out there knows and appreciated what I was doing on the
trip. All in all, I was a happy camper when I got off the cars
Monday afternoon in St. Louis, bringing to an end a weekend of 1200
miles logged by rail.
Justin Sobeck
Christopher,IL
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