Pete - Steam mesmerized me, too. After experiencing the 5632/4960 fan trips
of the 1960s, I had always wanted to own a steam engine. My wish came true in
the early 1970s when I and two friends purchased a wood burning Baldwin cabbage
stack logging 2-6-2 from the Alger Sullivan Lumber Co. in Century, FL. At
the time, I was a broker at Pinto Island Metals that was a large regional scrap
yard in Mobile, AL. I had been sent to the saw mill that was closing to survey
the obsolete machinery and equipment for its scrap value in order to
formulate a bid. I was very surprised to find the derelict 2-6-2 with slope back
tender at the mill marked as scrap. To make a long story short, my friends
and I bought the engine known as No. 100 for scrap value, had it loaded on an
oil field flat bed trailer and trucked to the scrap yard where we restored it to
operation using steam fittings and packing from engine rooms of Liberty
Ships that were being dismantled at the yard. Once restored, we used the 2-6-2
to occasionally switch the yard including a mile run up the island to the Frisco
interchange. The No. 100 was featured in a two page spread by Railfan Magazine
in, I think, 1976. One of my partners in the 2-6-2 was the late L&N
engineer J.R. Phillips who had been the last steam qualified engineer on
the Mobile & New Orleans Division. J.R. became like a second
father and taught me just about everything there was to know about
"small" steam power. Through J.R., I was able to meet SR steam master mechanic
Bill Purdy and other Dixie steam icons of the era. These luminaries included Tom
Lawson of Birmingham, AL, for whom I later wrote the introduction and
sections of his wonderful book "Logging Railroads of Alabama." The
other partner was Max Grice who was general manager of the yard.
Pinto Island Metals did their switching on the second shift, so I was a
broker from 8 am to 5 pm and engineer (or fireman if J.R. was off his usual
run) on the 100 during the evening hours. We burned pulp or drift wood
from the Mobile River with occasional old ties and took water
with a hose from a fire hydrant. The engine steamed beautifully and was powerful
enough to pull anything in the yard. The 100 also was very useful
in steam-heating tank cars full of Bunker C fuel oil that had been
pumped earlier out of the ships being scrapped. The oil would harden like tar
and had to be heated again to be pumped off to tanker trucks owned by waste
oil dealers. I spent many nights keeping the 100 hot so its steam could be used
to heat a string of tank cars. Many, many memories here of being alone on a
hot steam engine under the stars at night along side a snake infested swamp
listening to the frogs and alligators. Mosquitoes were seldom a problem, just
crack the fire box door and let some smoke into the cab...... All
there was to do was keep an eye on the steam gauge and when it dropped a little,
toss in a couple of logs. Plus, once or twice a night, I'd have to put the
injector on for a little water. It was just me and my steam engine...... Whereas
I didn't get coal soot and cinders all over me, I always came home to shower and
change clothes smelling like a bon fire (or so my wife would tell me). There is
also a Q connection to all this. The 100's original headlight was rusted
out, so I replaced it with one from M4a 6324 that my dad had given me
as a birthday present years earlier. So, after illuminating
Q mainlines from Chicago to Denver and Galesburg to Beardstown, the
headlight ended-up on a logging 2-6-2 switching an Alabama scrap yard. J.R.
and I both freely interchanged the steam whistles we had on the No. 100, so I
had a chance to hear what my five chime iron top off an O5 and brass three chime
off an O1a sounded like with 180 psi of saturated steam. We later sold the
100 to the Whitewater Valley Scenic Railway and years afterwards they sold it to
Alger Sullivan Historical Society that returned the locomotive to Century, FL,
for permanent display. A well traveled logging 2-6-2 to say the least. Today,
nothing remains of Pinto Island Metals and its industrial railroad, the entire
tract having been redeveloped by the Alabama Port Authority for unloading
shiploads of steel slabs consigned to the Thyssen Krupp steel mill north of
Mobile. The 100's headlight is now displayed in my home along with
the two whistles and all I have to do is glance at them and I'm
overwhelmed with memories -
Louis
In a message dated 1/29/2013 11:03:41 A.M. Central Standard Time,
Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com writes:
Maybe I should "go on the Road" with
that.
Here's a little story which I'll clean up a bit, but I can't resist
telling it.
We were at Langdon one day and the south local was there and we were
transferring merchandise across the high platform. I was wearing my
usual "black face" and arms as well.
I remember the fireman on the local yelled at me....l "hey look at
the little...... "ethnic slur" boy on the RPL&N"....No one took
offense in those days.
Pete
-----Original
Message----- From: HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com> To:
CB&Q Group <cbq@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tue, Jan 29, 2013 8:01
am Subject: RE: [CBQ] Story POsts
Pete: There can't be many people in the country --
the world, even -- who can say they fired a 4-4-0 in revenue service!
And a former Q 4-4-0 at that! Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.comFrom: Jpslhedgpeth@aol.comDate: Tue, 29
Jan 2013 00:22:40 -0500 Subject: Re: [CBQ] Story
POsts
One of my few regrets is that I never got
to work with a steam engine. IIRC the last steam on the Lincoln-Hastings
line was 1955 which was a year before I hired out...Summer 56, my first summer
they kept a steam engine at Ravenna for protection..IIRC it was the
5080. At that time waycars were still changed at
Ravenna. The switch engine worked nights
1:00am-9:00am. The rule was that if a road train was "called in" for
within a half hour of the switch engine going off duty it had to be held
over to make the change..Otherwise the crews make their own waycar
change.
On several of my mainline trips Lincoln-Ravenna at Ravenna the
switch crew would be working with the steam engine to make a waycar
change.
There was were two locals which tied up at Ravenna 6 nights a week.
The Burwell Local and the Lincoln-Ravenna local. These locals used a
Geep for power, hence there was always a diesel for the switch engine to use,
but if those locals got out in the morning and the switch crew was held over
they would use the steam engne.
I got forced to the Ravenna switcher late summer of 56...It was an awful
job..Not much work but all nights and me staying in an old non ac hotel
getting no sleep and the job paid little or no OT...
I thought surely one night of the three weeks I was there I'd get a
chance with the Black Beauty as one of the switchmen called it...Well, it
never happened. So as far as the CB*Q is concerned I'm
steamless...However in my early life on theRock Port Langdon and Northern I
spent lots of time on the 440 and 2 Spot. I wasn't big enoough to
lift the shovel, so I picked up the coal and threw it in the firebox by
hand..And then of course I had to wipe my hands on my face...My dad was the
engineer the last 3 years of operation and he could work around coal and dirt
all day and never get any on himself...Such was not the case for me.
Pete
-----Original
Message----- From: Noel Crawford < georgecrawfordsr@comcast.net> To:
CBQ < CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Mon,
Jan 28, 2013 8:28 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] Story POsts
Pete:
Non of my people worked for the
Q or any other RR. However, I have kid memories of the folks who did. My
brother in law's stepfather, Rick Walthers worked as an engineer starting as a
fireman on steam engines. I remember the day we were painting the interior of
the Brown McDonald store in York. Rick was working with us when he got called
for the extra board. He took of for Lincoln like a dog with a tin can on it's
tail. It is a wonder he made it in time for his call driving 50 miles down old
highway 34 years before the interstate. When his train came through York, my
dad and I were out on the embankment overlooking the line. Rick was firing a
Mike 04a. He was in the gangway grinning like a kid. The engineer gave us a
long tug on the whistle cord which put a bigger grin on my face. Rick loved
steam but hated diesels. Towards the end he really disliked his job. He died
in the 80's of lung cancer. One of the best stories I have of him is when in
the 70's he put an extra e mpty box car in his train which was the local. He
knew they were going up to Benedict on the old KC&O. He then got the crew
to help him take the big heavy roll top desk out of the Benedict Depot and
haul it back to Lincoln. It was the original desk from the KC&O. He
restored it to pristine condition.He had gotten permission from someone to do
this. Anyhow I would have killed for that desk, but his widow gave it to
Rick's daughter for her husband who worked for the UP. They still have it. By
the way I am 3 score and 12. LOL
Noel
On 1/28/2013 8:40 PM, HOL
WAGNER wrote:
Pete: I'm a year older than Louis, so you've got a
decade on me, too. And what a decade: The differences between
the 1950s and the 1960s were monumental in railroading, with the change from
steam to diesel and the decline of passenger service. I'm lucky to
have ridden a number of Q passenger trains in the late '50s and early
'60s, while service standards were still quite high, and my all-tme favorite
dining car experience was eating dinner in the old heavyweight
diner-lounge car (car 325 for those who care) on No. 26 out of Kansas City
for Omaha. While I don't recall what I had (except that there were
peas, and the Q always served the best peas I've ever eaten), it was
just the ambience of the whole setting, with superb service by the dining
car crew and the fabulous ride of the old heavyweight car which had the rear
half of the original dining room converted into a lounge, complete with rear
end windows, creating something of a solarium. Never left that car
all the way to Omaha! Hol
To: cbq@yahoogroups.comFrom: Jpslhedgpeth@aol.comDate: Mon, 28
Jan 2013 20:12:40 -0500 Subject: [CBQ] Story
POsts
Charlie...I hope you really
mean it when you say that this "good stuff" ie stories is going to get
preserved...I've often wondered over the years if someone was actually doing
it.
I've done some writing on my own regarding my "Adventures" as a
Terminal Trainmaster on the RI, and am gathering material...actually I've
already gathered it..just a matter of getting it on here and other
places...for a Burlington Story...I've got the title, which I'll not reveal
here, but this recent stuff started by Louis Z. has "tripped my trigger" and
now approaching the Biblical "three score and 10 plus 10 if your
strong"...I'm closer to the "home terminal" than most of you so the time of
procrastination is almost past... Time to do it is now.
I've appreciated so much John and now Louis emphsizing the important of
the Stories....I've always thought that the people side of the railroads was
"where it was" for me...
Louis your "word picture" of the TCZ arriving at LaCross was
great....My granddaughter is a golfer and she played that course last
summer..She came home and said.."Grampa...that golf course was right by a
railroad track...the whole picture came immediately into focus.
The smell of the diner is someting one never forgets...When my dad and
I would be waiting at Langdon for 21 and 26 back in the 50's...they usually
met somplace around Langdon so we would catch them both...26 carried a
diner-parlor car on the rear end...As the train would leave and the diner
would go by the platform the aroma of dinner preparations would waft from
the open kitchen door and the grinning black chef would toss out a bone to
the "depot dog"...Actually he was the Langdon postmaster's dog and his name
was Spot. We would usually make the Langdon trip before
having supper at home and those diner smells created a "lustful desire" for
a "dinner in the diner"...well my mother always had a good one for us when
we got home.
Pete
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