January 27, 2015
Many thanks for sharing. From your image, it's definitely a Class O-3
locomotive, road number unknown. You can more clearly see how the impacted snow
and ice in the drift has knocked out the headlight glass, reflector and side
boards. In the background is a new three unit set of covered wagons, F-3, I
believe, diesels getting ready to try and pull the partially shoveled-out O-3
from the drift. I vaguely remember a story told by my late Father
about the Blizzard of '49 on the Casper (WY) Division during a similar
event where a set of covered wagons spread the
rails beneath them from the great tractive effort being exerted
to try and pull a steam locomotive free of a drift. Dad said then they had
a really BIG mess in rerailing the diesels in the frigid cold to get
back at the steam locomotive. Hard to believe today that Q operating
department employees had to endure such physical hardship and danger to keep the
lines open in blizzard conditions. You can also see that someone from the
mechanical department has had the foresight to wrap the O-3's stack to keep
as much heat in the boiler as possible to keep the locomotive from
freezing-up in the zero or below temperatures. I think the tall officer in
the surge blue great coat and Cossack style fur hat may be John
Grissinger who was to become Lines West General Manager and who was a good
friend of my Dad's. Again, thanks for sharing. I'll correct my earlier
image as to class, date and place. Best Regards -
Louis
In a message dated 1/27/2015 12:57:22 P.M. Central Standard Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
This picture is between Ashby and Bingham, NE during the blizzard of
January 1949 as you stated.
Here is another photo of the stranded locomotive.
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Posted by: LZadnichek@aol.com
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