Mike,
In January, 1967, I was an EMD field instructor assigned to the
Milwaukee Road Shop at Bensenville, IL, for the delivery of new
GP40s. I was staying at a motel on Mannheim Rd. when the storm hit.
Being young and dedicated, I decided that I should make an effort to
get to the shop even though there was over 2 ft. of snow on the
ground and not much was moving. I spent most of the morning digging
my car out, managed to dent a fender and finally, had to put chains
on in order to get moving.
When I got to the shop, it too was inundated with snow. The major
focus at the time was a pair of F units which they were trying to dry
out so they could send it west to a siding near Elgin where the RR
had a gondola mounted plow stored. Late in the afternoon , the F's
finally headed west running light. When they got to the siding and
coupled onto the plow, they could not move it. By that time, the
moisture problems on the locomotives had started to resurfaced. After
several hours, the crew had to give up and limp back to the shop for
another drying out. As I recall, "normal" operation did not return to
the Milwaukee or any other Chicago RR for several days.
As a side note, this storm was somewhat of a surprise. On WBKB -TV
(later WLS-TV), which had recently started a new local evening news
and weather program, the weather forecaster, John Coleman, called for
"partly cloudy" skies that night. The next day, he received a cryptic
call from a listener telling him that he had "two feet of partly
cloudy" in his front yard!
Bill Barber
On Jan 29, 2007, at 12:24 PM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> 1967 Blizzard.
>
> Posted by: "mikebennidict" mactach@sbcglobal.net mikebennidict
>
> Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:14 am (PST)
>
> This month marks the 40th aniversary of the great snowstorm that
> struck
> the Chicago area.
>
> Wonder if anyone around at that time who either road the Burlington or
> operated trains in the Chicago area can mention any stories or
> inncidents that happend durring that time.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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