[CBQ] Mr. VanNortwick's O-1-A

[LZadnichek@aol.com]

February 27, 2014

 

Archie - GREAT recollection by Ms. Morsch. I remember Mr. VanNortwick as he was a good friend of my father's. Not commonly known is that Mr. VanNortwick personally picked the 4960 out of the Galesburg deadline for use as a sister fan trip engine to the 5632. The story related to me by my father was that when the Q's passenger department was overwhelmed with fan trip requests to the point where a second steam engine was needed to cover for the 5632, instructions were passed down to Mr. VanNortwick as Chicago Division Master Mechanic to find a suitable engine. Since not every steam engine in a certain class steamed and operated as well as its sister engines, Mr. VanNortwick had first hand knowledge of what surviving engines at the time were "good and dependable" and what engines were undesirable. From his career in the mechanical department, Mr. VanNortwick pretty much knew firsthand every remaining steam engine from a mechanical viewpoint and the 4960 was the engine he picked. "Van" as he was known to fellow Q executives, wanted an O-1-A  since it could operate just about anywhere on the system and was powerful enough for a dozen heavy weight coaches or more. Of course, the tradeoff was speed as an O-1-A wasn't nearly as fast as an O-5. But, an O-1-A also would be more economical to operate than another O-5 or S-4. So, the 4960 was pulled from the Galesburg deadline and saved from being sold for scrap to Northwestern Steel & Wire. The rest is fan trip history. Mr. VanNortwick was a very well thought of and respected mechanical department officer of the "old school." I believe one of his ancestors was also an early day president of the Q. There are thousands of images of the 4960 in fan trip service, but I'm inserting the only photograph I've ever seen of it in regular freight service. It shows the engine equipped with a straight-sided tender powering an extra eastbound freight train (looks to be a trainload of refrigerated cars) through Downers Grove, IL, during World War Two on January 13, 1944. This is pure speculation on my part, but, perhaps, Mr. VanNortwick first became acquainted with the 4960 while maintaining it at the Clyde Roundhouse during World War Two and never forgot the O-1-A as being a "good and dependable" engine.  

 

  

Louis Zadnichek II

Fairhope, AL

 

 

 

In a message dated 2/27/2014 10:27:08 A.M. Central Standard Time, cbqrr47@yahoo.com writes:

This is a great letter, Archie. She is right, railroaders are not "normal people"  and God bless them for that!

On Thursday, February 27, 2014 9:50 AM, archie hayden <klinerarch@charter.net> wrote:

 

List, Found this nice tribute from a retiring clerk of the CB&Q that
speaks volumes about the culture we were exposed to when we hired out
on the CB&QRR. Enjoy, Archie