CB&Q #12 seems, from the early
1940s on, to have been relegated to the status of a Burlington to St. Louis
local with only coach accommodations available. In 1942, it was scheduled through Keokuk
at 8:00 am after a Burlington departure at 6:40 that morning. There is also a note in the timetable
that, even though not a scheduled stop, the train would pause at Alexandria for
revenue passengers destined for Quincy and beyond and, on Sunday, to dispatch
mail. A 1946 public timetable has
it passing through Keokuk at 8:20 am.
An E7 was often the power for train #12: #9925A was on the lead according
to a train order issued on July 27, 1948.
Mike Spoor?s CB&Q in Color,
Volume 3, also places an E7 on the head of train #12 at the Hannibal depot
in October, 1951, and an undated photo in the same book shows #12, again near
Hannibal, with black-striped E7 #9929A pulling a consist of predominantly
head-end cars, including three converted Troop Kitchen Cars. A photo posted on RRPictureArchives.net
by Lew Schneider puts shovel-nose #9908 on the front of #12, this time on March
7, 1951 at St. Louis, with four cars in tow. Another photograph from Mike?s book
shows #9908 on the front of #12 on February 20, 1957. A train order, issued in Keokuk, puts
#9929A on the front of #12 in 1958.
Frank H. Dewey, who shared his memories of travelling to West Liberty on
the Zephyr Rocket, also commented on
the return trip, which from Burlington south seems most likely to have been on
train #12:
?The return trip was a better
adventure as we started out on a Rock Island mixed train from West Liberty. The consist was a Rock Island GP-7 in
the early ?Route of the Rockets? paint scheme, three freight cars, a baggage
car, Railway Post Office, and a heavyweight coach. My cousins had come with us to West
Liberty and the engineer let the oldest into the cab of the
locomotive.
This was a working train and the crew wore bib overalls
rather than passenger uniforms. I
do not remember a stove in the coach but neither do I remember getting cold.
It was winter in Iowa, so there
must have been some heat source.
We got into Burlington a couple of hours
before the CB&Q local to St. Louis was scheduled to depart. This left us in the modern Burlington
depot (built in 1944) with little to do since it was Sunday. My dad and I walked around the depot and
watched the switching in the adjoining yard. Finally, it was train time. The train consisted of CB&Q
locomotive #9908, the Silver
Charger. This was the last of
the Zephyr-type locomotives. It was built in 1939 for use on the General Perishing Zephyr. It had an A-1-A front truck and an
unpowered four-wheel truck on the other end. The dummy end contained a baggage
compartment, so it is somewhat of a motorcar rather than a true locomotive. The balance of the train was a baggage
car converted from a World War II troop sleeper, an RPO, and a heavyweight
coach.?
Effective April 27, 1958, trains #43 and #12 were dropped from the
schedule, leaving just three pairs of passenger trains operating through Keokuk:
#41 and #42, the commuter run between Hannibal and Chicago, which would last
less than a year more; #8 and #15, the Zephyr Rocket; and #1 and #44, now
operating as the local trains between Burlington and St.
Louis.
TRAINS #1 AND #44 (1958-1963)
About the time trains #12 and #43 were discontinued, #9908 was being
transferred from K-line service to the Lincoln Division for service between
Lincoln and Kansas City. One photo
puts it there as early as August, 1957.
An additional photo places it at Table Rock, Nebraska on March 5, 1959
and train orders supplied by Bill Hirt place it on the Lincoln to Kansas City
route that summer. Power on #1 and
#44 during the next couple of years was therefore typically an E7. In 1959, as suggested above, trains #1
and #44 stopped running into St. Louis Union Station due to the high terminal
costs. Instead, they began making
use of the CB&Q?s freight station at Second and Carr in north St.
Louis.
As of November 1, 1960 the run of these trains was cut back to St. Louis
to West Quincy, with bus connections being offered between Hannibal and
Burlington; train orders issued in Keokuk for the duration of the timetable
period show trains #1 and #44 annulled between Burlington and West Quincy. With the loss of Baby Zephyr trains #41 and #42 a year or
so before, Keokuk was now down to just one pair of passenger trains each day, #8
and #15, the Zephyr Rocket. According to Burlington Bulletin #23, #9908 was
brought back to the K-line at this time as power for the reduced-run local
trains south of West Quincy.
Interestingly, a photograph variously dated between June and September,
1960 locates #9908 in Burlington, pulling an RPO and coach, so Silver Charger may well have returned to
the K-line run prior to the reduction of service. #9908 was to keep this assignment until
the trains were discontinued completely on April 28, 1963. Afterwards, it would be assigned to a
run between Galesburg and the arsenal in Dayman, Iowa a few times a week until
the unit was finally retired in 1966 and donated to the National Museum of
Transport near St. Louis.