Bob..Ya. as I recall the CBQ Agent at Sorento in 52 was a women & I
never met her...I don`t remember the bowling alley but I remember the
card parlor where all the old retired coal miners played cards and
drank their wine (Sorento was s`pose be dry)
-
Train order hoops = yeah they were a Y shaped hoop and we had train
order staffs to place them in on the NKP...but...the CB&Q did not
authorize use of train order staffs (and they didnt approve them
until up into the 1970`s)....It was no fun standin out there handin
up order to steam Engs (and both NKP & CBQ was all steam thru Sorento)
-
Did you know the crossing signals at Sorento was controlled by the
Opr in Sorento Tower....WE had a DPDT (double pole double throw)
knife switch on the wall which we were to throw when a train was
approaching the crossing (main street of the town)...now the "Q"
trains were coal drags and seldom going very fast...but on the NKP
our freights ran abt 60mph....I damned near got a whole family killed
one night when the Dspr changed order for an eastbound hot shot and I
was rushing down the stairs to get the orders to him when I
remembered I had forgotten to throw the crossing flashers...a model A
ford crossed in front of that freight train with kids hanging out
every window and they cleared by about 20 feet...I still have
nightmares ...What a responsibilty to put on 20 yr old kid fresh off
the farm.
> Paul,
> I relieved the agent at Sorento in the summer of 1952 and remember
the NKP tower well. If I recall correctly, you used bamboo fishpole
hoops stuck into a holder to hand up train orders. The only other
thing I remember about Sorento was the bowling alley where I got
acquainted with the owner and a blind guy that hung out there.
>
> Bob
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Paul Robt. Jackson
> To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 1:43 PM
> Subject: [CBQ] Beardstown Ill CB&Q...5wpm Oprs...
>
>
> Hey Bob, back in `52 I worked to 2nd & 3rd trick oprs job at "SO"-
> Sorento Tower (NKP/CBQ manual interlock)....We worked with "BT"
> Beardstown and it was a joke, we could hardly ever get them to
even
> answer the wire...and if they did they could hardly copy their
> name..I recall once I had an accident report to send .. could not
> get "BT" to answer and the Dispr came on the wire and copied the
> report..Hope I don`t offend anyone but thats the truth and I
spent
> too durned many hours callin BT BT BT and getting no
response..while
> on the NKP if they didnt respond you knew they were out of the
> office, `cause if they were busy they would give you a "9"
or "25".
> paul
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|