Well, all right listers...here it is. After spending about 30 minutes today
I uncovered my February 1993 account of my first trip on the American Royal
Zephyr....For lack of a better title and in a burst of originality I'll call
it
THE MISSING TRAIN CREW
In 1950 I had attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge, PA.
Our contingent was made up of scouts and leaders from the Pony Express
Council which comprised Northwest MO and some of NE Kansas. A reunion of
those who attended the 1950 Jamboree was scheduled for Sunday afternoon and
evening December 26, 1953. In the meantime I had planned a trip to visit my
longtime railfan friend Jim Christen, who lived in St. Louis. I had never
been to St. Louis before and was in the midst of my senior year in high
school at Rock Port. Jim and i had cooked up the St. louis trip and I had
obtained official parental OK to do it. The route was to be CB&Q No. 56 St.
Joe to Quincy and then Quincy to St. Louis on the Jt. RI CB&Q Zephyr Rocket
with an arrival about 7:30am in St. Louis on December 27th.
I was much more interested in the St. Louis train trip than in attending the
scout reunion, but my dad wanted to go to the reunion, so we decided that he
would drive me to St. Joe on Sunday afternoon, we would attend the dinner and
reception and he would take me to St. Joe UD after the evening meal to catch
56.
When we arrived in St. Joe in mid afternoon we went directly to the depot so
that i could purchase my ticket in case of a close arrival after the dinner.
I'll always remember the ticket clerk in the old UD saying to me when I told
him I wanted a ticket to St. Louis. Well how do you want to go? I had
anticipated the question, since there were various routes ie Q to Kansas City
and then Wabash or MOP to St. Louis. I stated without any equivocation.
"Tonight on 56 at 8:30". I distinctly remember it. He said someth;ing to
the effect that there were better ways to go from St. Joe to St. Louis, but I
insisted and got the ticket the way I wanted it.
The scout reunion is beyond memory now, other than it hapened, but the trip
is not. The dinner wound up about 7:30pm and my dad took me to the depot,
dropped me off and headed back home to Rock Port.
I walked out to the platform shortly after 8:00. The American Royal
connection was on the stub track just south of the main entrance on the east
side of the station. I can still see in my mind's eye, that silvery sheen of
the Budd built coach and sleeper and maybe the cafe coach, which I can't
remember although the Dec. 53 official guide called for it. The equipment,
of course, was nearly brand new and really glowed under the platform lights.
I don't remember what the head end equipment was, probably a baggage car and
an RPO. It strkes me that it ws a 4 car train heded of course by an E unit
which would join with the connecting unit on the Kansas City part of the
trainat Brookfield.
As I recall, the sleeper was trained right behind the head end cars with the
coach behind it. Maybe there was a cafe coach on the rear end, but I don't
remember it.
As I walked up to the train little did I kknow that I was going to be
involved in a somewhat bizzare incident which I'll call with a tremendous
burst of originality THE MISSING TRAIN CREW.
The brakeman and conductor were standing at the vestibule betwen the sleeper
and the coach. I don't recall whether there was a rear vestibule on the
coach or not. The conductor asked where I was going and I replied St. Louis
via Quincy, and handed him my ticket. He told me to get on and turn to the
right into the coach.
As I observed the Conductor, a short heavy set man (as conductors are wont to
be) with an exrremely florid complexion. More florid than anyone I can ever
remember seeing. He was panting and wheezing even though standing still
(the night was mild for December as I recall) and not unusually damp. He
appeared to be having trouble breathing, and didn't look well enough to be in
charge of a passener train that night. Even as a 17 year old high school kid
I thought he looked really bad. The brakeman ws a younger man probably in
his 40's tall and slim and alert looking. The conductor was probably mid
60's or older.
I got on the coach, put my suitcase on the overhead rack and probably got
back out on the plat form to "enthuse" a bit, as we used to say, looking over
the train. As 8:30 approached, I got back on the coach and took my seat
about half way down the car on the right hand side or what would be the south
side of the train after we headed east.
At 8:30 promptly the communication whistle sounded two blasts and we slid out
of St. Joe, down through South St. Joe, across Monterey St. past the Quaker
Oats plant and Dugdale Packing plant. We quickly reached our timetable 59
mph and sped through the night, bound for our first stop at Stewartsville (21
miles out) at 9:04. By the way, Easton, which started this whole rememberance
was a flag stop and we didn't stop there. Easton is the first station east
of St. Joe.
As we made the regular station stop at Stewartsville, it appeared to me that
we had run by the station, which occasionally happens if the engineer
misjudges the amount of air to set. I saw the station lights go by me before
we got stopped. I hadn't seen the conductor or brakeman since we left St.
Joe, but here came the brakeman running down the aise toward the rear of the
car, and I heard him say to someone. "He ran by the station, and I've gotto
back him up". Again, nothing unusual. Nothing unusual here. You have to
have a man on the rear end when you b ack up, especially with a passenger
train at a station. I e xpected to hear the engineer "whistle back" (three
blasts) and feel the train begin to back up a couple of carlengths to the
depot. Not tonight......
Instead of a backup whistle, there was no whistle at all and we left town
just as though the station work was done and we were on our way. I knew the
flagman had gotten off the rear end and walked back. I thought OH OH we've
left the flagman here. I was tempted to get up and look back, but i didn't.
Since I didn't see him again, the thought that we didn't have a flagman
firmed up in my mind. Again i stillhadn't seen the conductor, and couldn't
figure out why he hadn't s topped us. I still didn't do anything.
On we went to the next regular stop at Osborn, 29 miles east of St. Joe, 8
miles east of Stewartsville. We stopped at 9:15, apparently at the correct
spot at the d epot. Station work at these small towns usually takes 2
minutes or less. After the allowable two minutes went past, we didn't move.
We sat there for perhaps another 5 or 6 minutes. In my railroader's heart I
knew something was wrong. I was 99 percent sure that we had left the flagman
at Stewartsville, but where was the conductor?
There were perhaps 15 or so passengers in the coach, and no one seemed
alarmed or even concerned, but I knew that it wasn't right. In another
min;ute or two the door at the front of the coach opened and another short
heavy set man with a peaked cap on (obviously the engineer) to me anyway,
came into the coach. He looked around and said these unforgettable
words....."Has anybody seen the conductor???" No one said anything, he
looked around again and went back out.
The details of what happened immediately after that have escaped me, but in
not too long a time, in came the flagman. And we headed on down the line. I
think that the conductor later appeared before we got to Brookfield..
Here's what happened. The conductor was an asthmatic and apparently was in
the beginning stages of an asthma episode as I observed him on the platform
at St. Joe. Shortly after we left St. Joe he got so bad that he went into
the sleeper ahead to lie down.
After the station run by at Stewartsville, the engineer apparently mistook
the flagman's backup sign for a highball and left town. I heard the flagman
say that after he got left, he ran over to the highway (US36) and flagged
down a car and persuaded the driver to take him over to Osborn. he thus
caught up with his train.
I think the conductor did recover and reappeared later before we got to
Brookfield.
The rest of the trip passed without incident. We arrived at Quincy about
2:30 am and I enjoyed about a 2 hour wait for the Zephyr Rocket in an old
coach which was being used as a temporary depot while a new depot at West
Quincy ws being constructed. this was part of a new bridge and line
relocation in connection with the KC cutoff.
Two years later I made the same trip to St. Louis during Christmas vacation
1955. When i got on 56 at St. Joe that night I said to the conductor, "The
last time I rode this train we lost both the conductor and the brakeman".
The conductor looked at his brakeman and laughed and said "yes, I remember
that...the conductor's name was Lowell Boothe.
Well that's a bit of Christmas time remembrance for now....I'll have a little
something else for a laugh of two in the next few weeks.
Pete
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
|