Certain questions seem to pop up peridically but that's a good thing
as means someone new to Q fandom has joined the crowd. Hope all are
joining BRHS! Still a real BARGAIN @ $30 a yr; send payment to Box
456, LaGrange, IL 60525-0456 for a yr's worth of Bulletins, Zephyrs,
Calendar, etc.
And speaking of Burlington Bulletins: #35 by John Mitchell (The Q in
the Coalfields) covers #4997 as the last Q steam loco in revenue
service on the Q. (with a nice photo taken 4 weeks before). 4997 is
also cited in other Q books/articles over the yrs.
The question of 'last' always has to be qualified: CB&Q vs. C&S or
FtW&D; vs. leased; vs. excursion; vs. urban legend. This is true no
matter what the issue is. But over the yrs #4997 has been cited as
the last use of steam in REVENUE service on CB&Q. The Beardstown Div
was a hold-out due to most revenue being rcvd from coal. This was
also true of other RR's (think N&W) and similar areas of other RR's
(IC served the coalfields in S. Illinois also & it was their last
steam powered area).
It is fair to say though that in the entire Burlington system from
Chicago to the Gulf Coast, except for the isolated C&S Climax branch,
4997 in Jan. of "59 was the last revenue run. Excursion service ran
several 6 yrs beyond but from a modeling & a historic perspective,
Jan. "59 was the end (except again for that C&S Climax run also
covered in earlier Bulletins). Bulletins have also cited last steam
runs on passenger & commuter runs, last gas-electric use, etc.
Suffice it to say that the Q, on average, ran some older equipment in
certain areas after other RR's quit doing so. (Nice for us modelers!)
>From a purely personal opinion, I often see this as evidence of
superor Burlington management plus the good care mechanical forces
gave equipment as well as the crews who operated it. The Q was among
the 1st if not the 1st to do all sorts of things: diesel-electric
powered passenger trains, domes, bi-level commuter cars, aluminum
hoppers, insulated box cars, etc but unlike its generally lesser
competitors, did not make wholesale switchovers. Q mgt had the dual
philosophy of seeking out and using the newest technology but keeping
at least part of the old if it made economic sense to do so; i.e. why
scrap conventional commuter cars overnight if they still had good
miles in them? (As opposed to C&NW that converted 100%) or scrap
recently shopped steam (as did CGW/M&StL, etc)? or totally convert
to computers (as did Penn Central which at its demise had more than
ANY entity except the Federal government).
One can argue that at times the Q was penny-wise and pound foolish or
in other cases wasted $$$ when looking in hindsight. However, bottom-
line, WITHOUT cooking the books, it went from 1864 (darn those
Confederate raiders in Missouri!) to BN in 1970 without EVER missing
a dividend much less going into bankruptcy. It's kind of like the
difference between being fiscally prudent and a skinflint; a question
of degree.
I should say too this is not just opinion - looking thru Railway Age
issues in the 1960's and reading studies by others since, this is the
feeling of many industry watchers: the Q, better than most, knew how
to strike the balance between when to keeping putting money into
something and when to replace it. Other RR's either did not replace
at all (or financially couldn't) or went hogwild & spent (borrowed)
beyond their means.
The same problems exist in business today - those with good mgt and
good employees weather the storms, the others don't.
Stay tuned for my annual Christmas gift of some off the wall facts
(will be steam since that is the focus on list now!)
Season's Greetings! Gerald
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