Hol - I had meant to answer back before now. I have (somewhere) the bills
of sale with dollar amounts for all my Q hardware. Trusting to memory (may be
not such a good thing when it come to money), I recall that the three front
mount O5a bells cost dad something like $50 each. The Galesburg Storekeeper
loaded them into steel tubs and shipped all to the Q freight house in Ottumwa.
Since we had a rental house there, the bells resided in a secure portion of
the freight house until dad was transferred to Chicago. Then, the bells
were shipped to, I believe, Freight House 9 in Cicero and stayed there
until dad purchased a home in Downers Grove. Then, a truck brought the
bells to our new house and they were man-handled into the basement for
display. It was just a little unusual for a Q official to have not one, but
three O5a bells, so they were always proudly shown-off to family
members and railroad friends over for a little Rule G on a Saturday
night. Dad was familiar with all three O5a's that the bells had come from as he
had rode them as a headend brakeman during his trainman days on the
C&I. Dad always said some of the best sleep he ever got was sitting on the
brakeman's seat of an O5 at speed on the C&I. So, the bells were just not
"bells," but precious keepsakes of his trainman days during World War Two.
The bells really, really meant a lot to him and I can genuinely appreciate that
all these years later. The M4a headlight came from Eola as a birthday
present when I was, I think, age 17. That would've been in 1963. I do not
remember what it cost, but it couldn't been much. To this day, I do
not know how the headlight got to Eola, because it was sitting alongside a huge
pile of cut-up heavy iron. There was a second headlight also there, a Pyle
National with winged number boards," but since it did not come with its
huge mounting backet, as did the M4a headlight, I chose the headlight with the
bracket. There has been some discussion over the years as to the Q
cutting-up a couple of "large" steam engines at Eola rather than selling them to
NWS&W in Sterling. In fact, my dad said as much. An O1a was definitely
scrapped there as artifacts and images of it appeared on EBay a year or so ago.
Maybe a M4a also got the torch there. Can you confirm or deny this? I've
always wondered. Anyway, the two whistles came from the Galesburg Storekeeper
about the same time, but without any indication of what locomotives they
were removed from. I do not remember what they cost. Will have to find the bill
of sale. Dad had specifically requested a whistle from an O5a and one from
an O1a. The iron top five chime has got to be an O5 whistle
and the brass three chime has got to be from an O1a, but dad never could find
out just exactly what engines the whistles came from....and he tried, but the
roundhouse laborers didn't record the engine numbers when they removed the
whistles. I've also got a builder's plate off an O5a, but that's a story for
another day -
Louis
In a message dated 1/29/2013 2:34:54 P.M. Central Standard Time,
holpennywagner@msn.com writes:
[Attachment(s)
from HOL WAGNER included below]
Louis: I have the headlight from the last C&S
Pacific, No. 374, purchased for the princely sum of $10.30 at the Seventh
Street storehouse in Denver and loaded into the trunk of a car off the
storehouse dock. The engine had been cut up a few hundred feet east of
the storehouse. Attached is a copy of the receipt, which I display with
the headlight. I also have the front number plates from C&S 2-8-0
No. 602 and Q O-1-A 5100, the latter acquired in a trade with Jim Ehernberger
of Cheyenne. The 602 plate is a real plain Jane, as the
locomotive was originally numbered 462; when it was renumbered in 1906
the old number and everything else was ground off and the new number simply
painted on the flat surface. It was given to me by the storekeeper;
no money changed hands. Whistles were being sold by the C&S
in the 1960 era for $100, and bells went for $300, except that no bells were
actually being sold, as they were all being donated to churches and other
organizations. At that same time a wooden caboose (the C&S called
them cabooses, not waycars) could be had for $300 -- with the proviso that it
had to be removed from company property within 30 days or the $300 was
forfeited. Several C&S cabooses were sold multiple times before
finally leaving the Seventh Street rip track for
good. Hol
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