[Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
October 8, 2015
Hol - THANKS for sharing some of your NWS&W photographs. Dad was
Ottumwa Division Superintendent in 1960 and the funeral train of tenderless
Class O-5-B locomotives 5626 and 5627, along with a number of others,
passed through Ottumwa, IA, en route to Galesburg and eventually NWS&W
in Sterling, IL. Dad had wanted to take me out of school to see them, but I
had a test or something and couldn't miss school. I remember Dad telling my Mom
how sad it made him to see the locomotives in such poor condition. He felt
the Q should've moved them only at night, or otherwise painted out all the
road numbers and Burlington Route heralds on the tenders since they presented
such a poor company image. Plus, as Dad had recollections of riding some of the
locomotives during his early days as a brakeman, or having seen them at work, it
was like losing some good old friends. Dad "hurried" the funeral train off
his Division as he was also concerned of a possible derailment since the
locomotives were so, to use his word, "ragged." Dad's feelings
were shared by many middle and senior level operating
department officials and train service employees at the bitter
end of the Q's dieselization. That's one reason why Q President Harry Murphy was
so generous in donating steam locomotives for display thus saving them from
being scrapped. Some where in my Dad's papers I have a copy of a
Transportation Department teletype listing the scrap locomotives and, I think,
idler cars used in the Lincoln funeral train with the 5626 and 5627, or
another one in the same general time frame. If I can find the teletype,
I'll share. I've attached an image from my digital collection showing what I
believe to be a portion of the Lincoln funeral train that included the two
tenderless O-5-B's being assembled at the round house. The lead locomotive
is tenderless Class O-1-A No. 5082 that the Corbin book says was sold for scrap
in November 1960. The other two scrap locomotives all appear to be
Class O-1-A and are unidentified. The locomotives have had their
cabs cut-off so they could be coupled together cab-to-cab. I seem to
recall that Bob Campbell and Bill Barber later came across the 5626 and 5627, or
may be it was two other O-5's coupled cab-to-cab, set out east of Galesburg on
a siding in route to NWS&W and took some photographs. May be they can
share their memories of the melancholy encounter with us if my memory is
correct. Best Regards - Louis
In a message dated 10/8/2015 10:54:10 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
[Attachment(s) from Hol Wagner
included below]
Interesting photo. Here are a couple from my collection --
I bought them at some meet, but I don't remember where or when, and there's
nothing on the back of the prints. Both views are at NWS&W in
what I would guess to be December 1960. They show O-5s 5602 and 5604
(which were sold for scrap in June 1960) and O-5-Bs 5626 and 5627 (which were
sold in November 1960). In the overall view, there are four GTW
locomotives beyond the 5602, then another O-5-A in the
distance. Unlike your photo, Louis, the four Northerns in these
views have been shipped to Sterling without their tenders, which were retained
by the railroad for company service use. In order to transport them, the
overhang of the cab roof on the two O-5s and the vestibule area at the
rear of the cab on the O-5-Bs has been torched off by the railroad and the two
pairs drawbar-coupled cab-to-cab. All four of these locomotives had
been s tored at Lincoln for several years, and were shipped east from
that point. The last of them to operate was the 5626, which powered an
Illini Railroad Club "Journey to Yesterday" trip in June 1959 from Lincoln to
Denver and back to Lincoln. During the layover in Denver while the
excursionists took buses to southwestern Colorado to ride the D&RGW narrow
gauge, the 5626 ran a C&S-sponsored round trip from Denver to
Colorado Springs over the Joint Line (my first fantrip!) and the
following day ran a two-car (coach and caboose) private trip from Denver to
Fort Collins and return for Boulder artist Howard Fogg and his invited
friends. (This trip was patterned after the one operated between
Cheyenne and Guernsey, Wyo., by Jim Ehernberger and written up a couple of
years ago in Classic Trains.) For this trip out to
Colorado, Lincoln repainted the 5626 -- with one unfortunate feature that
cannot be seen in these B&W pho tos. Since the Burlington had just
phased out mineral red paint in favor of the new Chinese red, the cab roof of
5626 was painted Chinese red; awful!! And since the engine never
operated again after its return to Lincoln, it never lost that bright
red cab roof. Hol
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2015
16:26:19 -0400 Subject: [CBQ] Q Steam Being Scrapped At NWS&W [1
Attachment]
[Attachment(s) from
LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
October 6,
2015
Hol - Whereas Galesburg and Lincoln deadline images of retired Q steam
are fairly common, actual images of Q steam being scrapped inside the gates of
a scrap yard are relatively rare. I took the attached image in July 1961 at
Northwestern Steel & Wire in Sterling, IL. Shown is Class O-5-A No. 5609
in the process of being cut-up. The locomotive had been separated
from its tender at far left and the torch crew had started cutting off the
rods and cross head. I don't recall which day of the week it was, but from the
lack of workmen, I'd assume it was on a Saturday. The Corbin book says 5609
was built by the Q at the West Burlington Shops in September 1936 and sold for
scrap in May 1961. It was not quite 25 years old when scrapped and had been
out-of-service, I would think, for about five years. I've understood that
the Class O-5 locomotives had a design life of 30 to 35 years depending upon
shopping cycles, so diesels cut short their service careers by a decade or
more. In the background is the C&NW mainline and the cab of a passing
ALCO switcher can be seen. From visiting NWS&W a number of times with
my Dad who was Chicago Division Superintendent at the time, I developed a
strong interest in the scrap and steel industries resulting in my later making
a rewarding and interesting career in the scrap business. If any one else
has images of Q steam actually being scrapped, I'd enjoy seeing
them. By far the best collection of images showing Q steam
power being scrapped at NWS&W appear in noted railfan photographer
Ron Zeil's 1963 book Twilight Of Steam Locomotives. I treasure my copy.
Another one of my images tomorrow. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
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