My copy to the BRHS List bounced back as I'm not a member of that
particular List. Plus, I do not FaceBook. Could some one who is a BRHS
List member relay my post to that List. Thanks - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 4/27/2013 1:58:16 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
LZadnichek@aol.com writes:
April 27, 2013
Justin - I, too, have a Pyle National headlight with "winged" number
boards and the heavy cast steel smoke box face mount/bracket removed off
Q M4a 6324. There was no number plate with mine, either, just the engine
number painted on in yellow. Although the bracket has holes for a plate, it
doesn't appear that a plate had been on it in a long, long time. It's
been my understanding that many brass number plates were removed from Q
steam engines during World War Two scrap drives and either replaced with cast
iron ones or not at all with the engine number just being painted on the
bracket in yellow. A cast iron number plate off sister M4a No. 6312 was
recently offered for sale on this List for $3,995, but there was no
follow-up posted indicating whether the plate sold or not. As for making
cardboard cut-outs/stencils to number your headlight, fellow List member
Charlie Vlk should be able to tell you what computer font to use for
enlarging to the proper size. My headlight came from the Store Keeper at the
Eola, IL. Reclamation Yard in, as I recall, the summer of 1963. Both the
6316 and 6424 are recorded as having been sold for scrap in 1961 to
Northwestern Steel & Wire in Sterling, IL. Photographs of the
6316's scrapping were published in Ron Zeil's book The Twilight
Of Steam Locomotives. Two of the M4a's awaiting dismantling there were
pulled off the scrap line and used for a couple of years as stationary boilers
in back of the steel mill along side the river. They were equipped
with extended stacks and large air blowers on the front ends to
create draft for the fireboxes. I photographed both and recall that their
pilot trucks had been torched off to get them around the tight curves
making them 0-10-4's. A sad fate for them both..... When they eventually got
to leaking too much to be of any further use, both were cut-up. Getting
back to the 6324, how its headlight ended-up in Eola some two years
after the entire class has been sold for scrap brings-up the old rumor that at
least one M4a was scrapped at Eola in the early 1960s to determine if it was
cost effective for the Q to dismantle the locomotives themselves. It's been my
understanding that this happened and it cost the Q more in labor than
what the scrap steel was worth at the time, so no other "large" steam
engines went to Eola, all were sold to Northwestern Steel & Wire. It
is known that Q O1a 4992, that had last been used at Galesburg,
IL, in hump yard and switching in the mid-to-late 1950's, did indeed move
to Eola for scrapping in the summer of either 1960 or 61. Perhaps, the 6324
accompanied the 4992, but I've never been able to find official documentation.
I'm very interested in how you came into possession of the 6316's
headlight. Must be a good story there. Please advise - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope,
AL
In a message dated 4/25/2013 6:38:56 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
tubaman21@yahoo.com writes:
Lists,
We
received the following inquiry off our Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burlington-Route-Historical-Society/241376535884413)
last night. Please be sure to include Mr. Kerstner in your reply if
you can help.
Hi,
I
have the headlight and headlight mount from CB&Q 6316, and I am looking
for any information or pictures that may exist about this locomotive. I have
already been in contact with Ron Zeil, the gentleman who documented this
locomotive's scrapping in 1961. The number boards were gone before scrapping
so I am looking for what font would they have used for them, and also did
this locomotive have a bronze number plate? There are holes in the mount for
one but all the pictures I have seen it has only had the numbers painted.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Justin
Kerstner
JK2402@gmail.com
Bryan J. Howell
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