All the CB&Q locomotives rode so well up to the end was due to the mechanical departments for steam staying all the way to the end. This guaranteed that the steam fleet would still be all "good runners" even if they were sitting in the dead line watching the SD7s do the jobs that they used to do. The DM&IR on the MN Iron Range was the same way all the way up to 1962 when they fully dropped steam.
Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:46 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
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!".
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I will keep my freedom, my guns, and my religion, you can keep the "change".
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