Set out on a siding beside the mainline at Somonauk, Illinois,
in October 1941, its main and eccentric rods removed and placed in the tender
coal bunker for transport, C&S 803 is clearly being moved somewhere.
It was then assigned to the Chicago Division, which normally meant use up in the
Twin Cities, but it would move to the Galesburg Division by the end of 1941, to
this is likely the reason for its appearance in Somonauk. It still has the
large Sunbeam headlight that it carried when first assigned to the
Q.
After its stint on the Galesburg Division the 803 moved on to the St. Joe
Division and was photographed at North Kansas City on October 19, 1947.
Still there is the big Sunbeam headlight, though now without a visor. And
there's a rectangular fire hose box between the tender trucks in both
views.
Strangely, though I have multiple views of all the other
800s in use on the Q, I have nothing showing the 804 while on lease. A
check of the Otto Perry photos at the Denver Public Library finds that Otto
photographed the 804 in Denver during 1931, in between lease periods to the Q
(
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/43074/rec/4)
and again in 1948, shortly after its return from the LaCrosse Division (
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/43638/rec/8
and
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/43641/rec/5)
but nothing of the engine on the Q. Here's a link to a 1919 view by Otto
that shows how the 800s looked in their early years, complete with rolltop
tenders:
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/43641/rec/5.
Two
more quick views of C&S power on the Q.
I missed this one earlier when I was covering the Ten-Wheelers.
During 1929 C&S C-3H No. 326 was leased and assigned to the Chicago
Division, where it was used in suburban service, outfitted with the huge
turbo-generators that were then used to supply electricity to the open platform
coaches of suburban trains. This was at a time when the Q was looking to
replace the K-2 Ten-Wheelers then being used in this service, and S-1 and S-2
Pacifics would ultimately be chosen as the replacements. But apparently
the Q decided to try at least this one heavier 4-6-0 to see if it could meet the
demands of the service. And obviously it did not. This view finds
the 326 departing Chicago Union Station with a dinky in the summer of
1929.
This one I can't explain. It shows C&S F-3B heavy Pacific No.
371 -- an oil-burner -- taking water as it makes the eastbound station stop at
Aurora, Ill., in November 1949. Why was it on the Q? I have no
idea. This was a time when steam was rapidly being phased out of mainline
passenger service, and heavy Pacifics were either being retired or relegated to
freight service, mostly out of Lincoln. Why, then, was an oil-burning
heavy Pacific at the helm of a scheduled passenger train (there's a baggage-RPO
car behind the wooden baggage car) nearing Chicago?
Next, as time
allows, I'll cover the Q locomotives leased to the C&S over the years.
