Christmas Day 2015
Merry Christmas Across Lines East And West To All Group Members
First, for those on Lines East, a memorable snapshot of No. 4000 Aeolus
flying through the freshly fallen snow at Riverside, IL, on a long forgotten
freezing cold winter day, perhaps, even on Christmas Day itself:
From the huge plume of snow and exhaust, not to mention the image being
slightly out of focus, Aeolus must be roaring by at track speed of 79 mph
(+/-). I've attached the image for those readers who have problems with
receiving embedded photographs.
Next, for those on Lines West, another undated image of a snow plow train
powered by a motor car clearing some forgotten prairie branch line. It looks
like the plow train has slowed down to a crawl on a crystal clear bitterly
cold day to get a running start on a snow filled cut just ahead:
That may be the road master standing a top the gondola passing signals to
the conductor standing in the open door of the motor car who can't see over and
beyond the big plow. The gondola was probably loaded with ballast to give the
plow train some momentum when hitting drifts. I've attached this image,
too.
And, what better than a good story to accompany Christmas on the Q. The
following took place on Lines West and I speculate the "box car" described was
indeed an express car converted from a World War Two troop car since no box cars
had end doors. But, it's still a GOOD story:
Let's hear from other Group members across Lines East and West who have Q
images and stories of the Christmas Season to share. No snow and ice in South
Alabama, Santa arrived wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt festooned with holly.
It's in the upper 70s! Merriest of Christmases to All - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
