[Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
November 4, 2015
Mike - I'll contribute one of my photographs of an ex-GTW 0-8-0 switching
the NWS&W steel mill at Sterling, IL, during July 1963. Shown is No. 10,
formerly GTW No. 8310 that was sold for scrap to NWS&W in September 1961.
Note the Mars light that had been removed from a scrapped Q steam locomotive.
NWS&W fitted a number of their 0-8-0s with such Mars lights for grade
crossing protection at night. Most of these chunky GTW switchers were found to
be in serviceable condition when delivered, so NWS&W put them to work
switching the mill and they are well remembered to this day by Chicago area rail
fans. I, too, have many happy memories of watching them at work, particularly
during winter months with clouds of coal smoke and steam billowing forth as
they huffed and puffed around the mill. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 10/26/2015 9:53:39 A.M. Central Standard Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
I suspect watching the
0-8-0s at the steel mill in Sterling was kind of bittersweet for the older
guys on the list considering all the steamers cut up there. When I got
to see them when I was a kid of 10 or so I got to watch them with sheer
excitement. I don't know how dad found out about them (probably from
somebody at his work) but one very cold weekend in the wintertime in the late
'70s we took a weekend trip up to Sterling. When I was a kid usually one
weekend during the wintertime we'd go away somewhere nearby to Morton, IL and
spend a weekend at a hotel with an indoor pool (Galesburg's Holidome was a
destination I remember - only time I saw the coal tower and was in the "real"
station). Anyway, at some point dad and I went down to Avenue G. which I
think was the overpass and stood on the sidewalk for what seemed hours
watching the switchers go back and forth. I don't remember too much
about it other than absolu tely freezing!
I, of course, didn't
know that hundreds of steamers were cut up there. Those cut up old
steamers are the reason that I got to see the 0-8-0s in revenue service that
day and it remains a treasured memory!
Mike Martin
and the only
other time I got to see steam hauling freight was the only day I ever was in
Marion as a kid and the Crab Orchard & Egyptian was running with the 2-8-0
that day! Talk about luck... we spent the whole afternoon with dad, me,
and my brother Jon foaming at the mouth and mom wondering if we were going to
ever stop chasing the train!
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