Stanley Rome was the Engineer and I was the Fireman on 9986 (BN).
She was one of three Q units on the train. The rest of the consist
was NP FP7's that left a lot to be desired. With the exception of
the Q units NOTHING worked as intended. The NP units needed a bath
and some TLC from the Mechanical Dept. The weather was perfect for
a funeral, cold, rainy and miserable.
The train was something else. It consisted of cars that were
certainly in "surplus" status when the train was put together. This
was a GREAT beginning for Amtrak. At 14th. st. we cut the Q units
off and put 'em on the pit. The rest of the train was supposed to
go over to the Pennsy's 18th. st. yard. The way the train handled I
could easily believe that the air was cut out on a fair number of
cars. The station "stop" at Oregon was a disaster. We got a run-in
that equalled any I'd ever experienced on a freight.
We ran as 32 but, in reality, we were actually EVERY passenger train
ever operated on the C&I, 22,32,26,24 and 48.
Two Chicago newspapers were to meet us on the platform at CUS but,
being more than eight hours late, they gave up on us in disgust an
went home.
The headline in the following days' papers read, "Empire Builder,
late for its own funeral".
What an ignominious end for some of the worlds finest and FASTEST
first class trains.
Karl
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