February 17, 2015
Group - The Erie ditcher shown in Duncan's earlier post spurred me to check
through my digital collection of Q maintenance of way (MOW) images. Since we've
lately been enjoying a banquet of wonderful steam power images thanks to Hol,
why not some of MOW equipment, too.
I'm attaching a classic MOW image dated August 14, 1931 of steam
pile driver No. 204614 with Bridge & Building Gang No. 1 at work on a
timber trestle near Galesburg, IL. Does anyone recognize the exact
location? The official at center wearing a tie and straw hat is the probably
the Division Engineer.
I'm a little surprised that the pile driver's tender with water and
coal supply is not coupled to it. The tender and camp cars must be on a nearby
siding as the pile driver would've been self propelled. I'd enjoy seeing
any other Q MOW equipment images that any other Group members would like to
share.
We can include steam shovels, pile drivers, wrecking derricks, bridge
cranes, spreaders, ditchers, hand pump or motor cars, camp cars, track laborers,
weed sprayers, construction scenes, whatever kind of machinery or equipment that
the Q and its subsidiaries used to construct and maintain their
right-of-ways from the Civil War era forward to the BN merger.
I'm sure that some of the MOW experts in this Group can better interpret
my and other's old images than I can. Let's all learn and share
what we can from images depicting the Q's MOW equipment and practices.
Personally, I spent two college summers on a Q steel gang in the mid-1960s. Best
Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope,
AL