Re: [CBQ] Parkman, WY

["Chris Atkins tcatkins@gmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

Great stuff, thanks Al.

I remember an article about a derail to this spur on your site.

Chris

Sent from my phone, sorry for the brevity.

On Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 6:12 PM runextra@gmail.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

My best guess would be that the Parkman wye was to turn Sheridan helpers that had helped a westbound from Sheridan to Parkman and then ran light back to Sheridan.

For eastbounds that needed help to Parkman the steam (and diesel) helpers ran west light out of Sheridan to one of the wyes at Wyola, Lodge Grass, or Area Wye (Hardin) to help trains east. They could also help a westbound freight out of Sheridan to Parkman but stay on that train downhill to one of the wyes to then help an eastbound to Sheridan.

There is probably no way to know just where the steam helper got on the passenger train in the photo. I always heard from the old timers that the helper would go as far west as deemed needed to assist both passenger and freight trains. The 60 mile upgrade begins just east of Hardin where the CB&Q crosses the Big Horn River and turns up the Little Big Horn River valley. The grade is not bad to Lodge Grass where it steepens, it gets steeper again at Wyola, and even more at Aberdeen reaching 1.3% before Parkman.  So the passenger helper cold have gotten on at Wyola, Lodge Grass, or Area Wye.

I doubt the eastbound helper would have cut off at Parkman. It is downhill from there to Sheridan (mostly) but there would generally be no need for the helper to cut off and return west unless it just happened that it was going back to assist a following freight train east.

I also don't know what the steam helpers did once they got to Sheridan with an eastbound train. I assume in steam days the helper would have at least changed crew as the train would have. But the engine may have gone thru with a new helper crew? If an eastbound train needed help to Parkman then it certainly would have also needed help east of Sheridan where the grade is 1.6% and on up to Ulm on the 1.25% grade.  In my diesel days helper crews usually ran thru Sheridan if they had plenty of time to work on the hours of service.

The Hardin North Line never connected to the NP. It was a stub branch that went about 16 miles north from the main at Hardin.
There was a Farmer's Co-op on the North Line in Hardin and a small stock yard. There were several sugar beet dumps on the line north of the Hardin Sugar Factory. I _suppose_ there could have been a stock chute or two or maybe an elevator on the 16 mile line at one time but I don't know. The line ended about 1/2 mile north of the Sugar Factory when I came here.
In the 1980s a tank farm facility was built at the end of the line just north of the then defunct sugar factory. The outfit got inbound loads of asphalt and ground up old tires to mix with it then shipped out the product.

I have a few pics of my trains on the line in later years on my website.

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Posted by: Chris Atkins <tcatkins@gmail.com>

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