Re: [CBQ] Story Posts (Hannibal Shops)

[LZadnichek@aol.com]

Glen - Dad was Hannibal Division Supt. in 1960. I think I.G. Toland followed my dad. I no longer remember the street address where we lived, but the house was on a hill across the street from a Catholic seminary that was fenced. There was an alley that ran in back of the house. When it froze, my mom had an awful time getting the car up the hill (remember, she was from south Alabama). We had neighbors named Blue who ran a plumbing or electrical business. They had a son named Pat a little older than me as I recall. I attended junior high school in Hannibal. Wasn't there long enough for high school. I was born in 1946, so would've been about age 14 at the time. Yes, we might've known each other. I had a friend there named Tom DeRoo whose father Albert DeRoo was chief clerk to the master mechanic at the time (Harvey Niemeyer?). Tom monitors the Group and contacted me off-line to reconnect some 50 years later. Also, Archie has been in contact with me off line and it's almost certain he and I shared a class in junior high. This is all so interesting to me that through the Group I've been able to reconnect with folks I've haven't heard from in years and years. I didn't realize that the railroad offices in Hannibal dated back to before the Civil War and had been the H&StJ general offices. Too bad the structure was demolished. A lot of history was lost there..... Thanks for the sandbag story....that's a GOOD one! I, too, was a Scout (Explorer), but never earned a railroad merit badge - Louis 

 

In a message dated 2/2/2013 4:08:36 A.M. Central Standard Time, glenehaug@msn.com writes:

Louis:
 
It is possible that we were in junior high together, but I don't remember.  I do remember the name, however (your Dad's name specifically).  It appears that you were born in 1946.  I was born in 1947, and was the first class to attend all three junior high years (7, 8, and 9) at the new junior high school, north of the high school (and directly north of the Missouri Highway department complex).
 
The reason I remember the name:  In 1959 or 1960 thereabouts I was very interested in railroads, and was also in Boy Scouts, and decided to earn a 'Railroading' Merit Badge.  One way to earn a merit badge was to have a mentor, so-to-speak, who was a parent actively involved in scouting who was also an expert in that field.  My mentor was T. J. Barker, who was a Hannibal Division freight conductor.  We had numerous meeting where he taught me something about railroad operations, the different crafts, and subseq uently passed me on the merit badge.  One item that we worked from was the current employee timetable, which of course, contained your Dad's name as Division Superintendent.
 
The Hannibal Division office building was saved by sand-bags on many occasions, I suspect.  I know it was specifically protected in 1965 and 1973.
 
Regarding sand-bags around the Hannibal office, I will relate a story told to me by a former Q B&B supervisor which I thought was amusing.  I assume he didn't make it up.  Prior to merger, I'm sure the Q placed sand-bags according to some standard arrangement that they had always used and trusted to keep the mighty Mississippi from getting into the CTC machines on the first floor of the Hannibal office.  When the flood of 1973 occurred, it was BN by this time.  The System Engineering office was in St. Paul, and they contacted B&B Assistant Supervisor F. E. Shelto n at Hannibal, and wanted him to describe the design and arrangement of sand-bags that was going to being used to hold back the river.  He thought the question was odd since the river had already started to flood, and the wall was already nearly complete.  Nevertheless, he described the sand-bag arrangement.  St. Paul contacted him again the next day, and said the arrangement would never work, and if he had known anything about design, he would know that it would never keep the river out, and that the design would have to be changed.  He politely told them it was a good thing that his B&B crew didn't know how to design, because the river had already flooded and they had already completed the wall, which of course, held.
 
Glen Haug

 

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To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: LZadnichek@aol.com
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 18:36:12 -0500< br>Subject: Re: [CBQ] Story Posts (Hannibal Shops)

 

Glenn - I did a little digging in some boxes and found some photographs from dad's collection. One is of the Hannibal Division office building with sandbags piled around it dated April 4, 1960. So, that would've been the year that dad was division superintendent there and the Mississippi River flooded. I would've been age 14. I only went to junior high school in Hannibal. Wonder if we might've known each other as teenagers - Louis 

 

 

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