[Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
October 19, 2015
Hol - Only a hand few of us in this Group have had any first hand exposure
to the deadline of Q and GTW steam locomotives at Northwestern Steel & Wire
in Sterling, IL during the early 1960s. The yard tracks holding the
scrap locomotives were within the steel mill complex and strictly off
limits to visiting rail fan photographers. Trespassers were roughly ejected with
a stern warning not to come back. If they did, then they would be arrested. And
don't even think about trying to remove a builder's plate or other "souvenir."
Just walking along the busy CNW right-of-way that bordered the deadline had its
risks from pesky CNW gumshoes and frequent freight and passenger trains. Whereas
NWS&W did issue photography permits, they were only to be used on
public roads and right-of-ways to shoot photos of their GTW 0-8-0's that
switched the mill. The mill itself and adjacent company property holding
the deadline were largely inaccessible. Very fortunately, since
my Dad was a Q operating official and knew Mr. Dillion, NWS&W
president, Dad and I were allowed entrance on two occasions that I remember
to visit the deadline. And, fellow rail fan friend and Group member Bob Campbell
and I made one "unauthorized" visit deep into the heart of the deadline on a
freezing cold winter day, but that's a post for another day. That being
said, it's still difficult to describe the large number and variety of
scrap steam locomotives there awaiting dismantling in 1963. There were
locomotives of all sizes and descriptions, branch line 4-6-0's to main
line 2-10-4's, dirty freight 2-8-2's to beautiful semi-streamlined
passenger 4-8-4's, some locomotives decently painted, others covered with rust,
some locomotives with tenders appearing to be in serviceable condition, others
near-wrecks missing tenders and coupled cab-to-cab, an expanse of sad,
derelict locomotives whose time had come. And tenders, yes tenders.....
NWS&W burners had "gutted" many large tenders turning them into scrap yard
gondolas, still with the locomotive's road number or company herald on their
sides. I also saw coal bunker portions of Vanderbuilt tenders that had been
turned into large hoppers for overhead gantry cranes to move scrap around the
yard. By that date, many of the Q locomotives delivered
earlier had already been cut-up. The Q had purged themselves of the
Lincoln and Galesburg deadlines during 1961, with the exception of those
locomotives saved for donating to on-line communities for display. The
purged locomotives all were sold to NWS&W to be scrapped. When the attached
aerial image was taken of the NWS&W dead line in 1961, all, or
nearly all, of the Lincoln and Galesburg dead line
locomotives had arrived there along with a large number of GTW
scrap locomotives. You might say it was their last great "reunion." I
tried counting how many locomotives are shown in the image and I'd say
there are at least 50. Over the years, I've heard estimates of 1,400
(+/-) steam locomotives off the CNW, IC, NYC, NPK, Q and GTW that were
fed to the furnaces at NWS&W over a 20 year period. Some 0-6-0
switchers off the CNW, IC and Q were used to switch the mill until they failed
and were ultimately replaced by the GTW 0-8-0's that some of us in this Group
still fondly remember. Now being nearly age 70, I can reflect back on how sad it
made my Dad to see the many Q steam locomotives there at the time. It
represented to him a tremendous visible change in culture and technology
over what he had been accustomed to up to that point in his
career. The Q and railroading in general of the 1940s and 50s that he
had grown-up and matured in as an operating officer was dying right
there along side those scrap steam locomotives and would never be the same
again. Best Regards -
Louis
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