In what appears to be her final "working" assignment before going to
the Colorado Railroad Museum, Irvine Fierstein photographed the 5629 at
Hastings, Nebraska. At what seems to be a chemical processing facility, the
O5-B Northern was used as a source for steam cleaning tank cars. Here
are the questions that may fill in some blanks:
1. What was the company/product that required the cleaning of tank
cars?
2. How long did the assignment last?
3. Did the company come up with a permanent solution?
4. Photos taken at Hastings a few years later show long strings of tank
cars on tracks north of the mainline. Were those cars destined
for the same customer or for different destinations?
I am trying to put together some text for photos that Irvine donated to the
BRHS archi ves, and this group of the 5629 are part of that project.
Thanks for any help offered. Jim Sandrin