[Attachment(s) from
LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
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