I'm surprised no one from this group has inquired about or commented on the photo currently for sale on eBay that shows R-4 Prairie No. 2026 at the Eola roundhouse in the mid-1930s with a pair of single lung air pumps mounted on the smokebox front, leaving just enough room for the smokebox door to be opened. It certainly gives a unique appearance to the little Prairie, reminiscent of much larger C&O and UP power. This is a well-documented locomotive, and I'm attaching several images of it from the Corbin collection, the first showing it on the deadline, awaiting shopping at West Burlington in August 1935. Two other views, including the one from eBay, depict the locomotive at Eola and Congress Park around the same period. A final view, taken at Streator in 1939, shows the twin pumps to have been replaced by a single cross-compound pump mounted down on the pilot deck (because it obviously wouldn't fit on the smokebox front and still allow the door to open). The reason for the pumps? Again, pretty obvious when you think about it: The pumps provided air to operate the dumping mechanisms of side-dump cars used in work train service. The Q apparently had at least one locomotive so equipped on both Lines East and Lines West, and in later years there may have been a couple on Lines East, as subsequent photos will show. When not needed for work train service in the summer months, the engines would be used in regular local and branchline service, as the Congress Park photo and the winter view at Streator attest.
More to follow.
Hol
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Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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CB&Q 2026, W. Burlington, Iowa, awaiting shopping, 8-1935, Corbin-Wagner coll..jpg
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CB&Q 2026, Eola, Ill., c. 1935, Air Pumps on Smokebox.jpg
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CB&Q 2026, Congress Park, Ill., 1935, Corbin-Wagner coll..jpg
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CB&Q 2026, Streator, Ill., 1939, Corbin-Wagner coll..jpg
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