Hol,
I rode the first two Illini Railroad Club Journey to Yesterday excursions in 1959 and 1960. I was 16 and 17 at the time. The 1959 trip was the only Q excursion that I know of, that left Chicago at night. That was Saturday, June 6, 1959 and as I recall, we left CUS about 9 pm with the 5632. On the next morning, June 7, we arrived at Lincoln where the 5626 replaced 5632. At the end of a long water stop at Hastings, NE, a few of the railfan passengers climbed into 5626's cab and were not asked to leave as we highballed. The same thing happened at McCook where we had a long fuel and water stop. Again, they stayed in the cab as we left. At the last division point before Denver, I believe it was Wray, CO, my traveling companion and I decided to try our luck. We climbed up into the cab during the crew change, and as before, they whistled off with us still in the cab. When I say us, there were eight railfans including one girl from Cincinnati and four railroad people in that cab; the engineer and fireman, a road foreman and a fourth gentleman who may have been a trainmaster. Both he and the road foreman were in suits. It was dark by that time. We rapidly accelerated and the engineer held the train around 80 mph over most of that last division. Boy was it noisy and exciting for a 16 year old. An all weather cab O-5 at 80 rides pretty rough when you are standing in the gangway.
On those first two trips, we were not Bussed to southwestern Colorado. The D&RGW hauled our full excursion train to Alamosa where where it laid over while we spent three days on the narrow gauge (four days the second year as we also went to Farmington on one day of the narrow gauge excursion). On the first trip, I believe that our train was powered by four D&RGW F7s and a Alco PB steam generator car. On the return during the first Journey to Yesterday trip, 5626, of course, had an eccentric rod failure 37 miles east of Denver, After a couple hour delay, the 5626 was replaced by two E8s which hauled us to Lincoln where the 5632 took over for the return to Chicago. Both were exciting trips for a young boy traveling alone.
Louis Zadnichek mentioned that I might have photos of the 5626 and 5627 heading to Sterling. I believe I do and will try to find them. I think they were taken at Mendota(?).
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO
Thu Oct 8, 2015 8:54 am (PDT) . Posted by: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 stored 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 photos. 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
__._,_.___
Posted by: William Barber <clipperw@gmail.com>
![]()
__,_._,___
|