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She is an O-1A and they were all pretty good until the rods and other running gear got worn out at the end of steam. I remember 4960 was good right up to the end. 4973 was also a very good engine. They were good steamers and easy to fire. You had to be easy on the throttle when you started, with a heavy load or they would spin the drivers. 4976 was worn out when I knew her and with an L&B front end, she was a bad steamer. All the M-4A's were great. The crews all said, "They rode like Cadillacs". The saying was,"They left town with everything you could hook to their drawbar". I remember an oldtime hogger telling me after the SD-7's came, with their flexicoil trucks, that they rode good but "they sure not M-4a's!". From: leo mccauley <leo_mccauley2001@yahoo.com> To: "CBQ@yahoogroups.com" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 1:45 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] That's news-in route mechanical troubles From: "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com> To: "CBQ@yahoogroups.com" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 12:59 AM Subject: Re: [CBQ] That's news-in route mechanical troubles Yes, 4978 was a longtime Herrin Junction engine. thank you, as you know she is at Mendota, was she a good runner? thanks Leo McCauley From: leo mccauley <leo_mccauley2001@yahoo.com> To: "CBQ@yahoogroups.com" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 12:44 AM Subject: Re: [CBQ] That's news-in route mechanical troubles From: "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com> To: "CBQ@yahoogroups.com" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 10:14 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] That's news-in route mechanical troubles I agree things like broken knuckles are a lot less common than in the past. If they called a news crew out every time my old "buddy" Harold Carney broke a knuckle, it would have been a full time bureau. From the Zeigler #2 mine to the north yard at Christopher, the right of way was littered with artifacts from his "throttle artistry". I remember one day, near the end of steam, when he outdid himself. He had about forty loads coming up the hill at Zeigler Junction (about 1%), when he made a heavy service application for the junction switch. He absent-mindedly kicked off the engine brakes, opened the throttle and
promptly lunged the first car behind the engine, (wrong end of course). Yes, an O-1A could do that without slipping a driver. His lame excuse was that the switchman gave him a "come ahead". The remedy in those days was to chain up the car and take it to the Christopher rip track. Harold was not a very popular person and to add a personal note I found him to be an unpleasant man. Trainmen and switchmen hated him. His firemen hated him. And his fellow engineers hated him. When he was in the Centralia North Pool, anytime he was called for a run "going west" (over the B&O to St. Louis), he
would mark off. Finally, the engineer next out preferred charges against him
in the BLE Lodge. That made a believer out of him because if they kicked him of the union, his job was gone! __._,_.___
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