April 3, 2016
Pete - Here's an inserted image of your lignite burning "Villisca"
friend, Class B-1 No. 7007 stored out-of-service at Lincoln, NE, in July 1951,
most likely to never run again. I've also attached the image.
This class of 4-8-2 type passenger locomotives were constructed by the Lima
Locomotives Works in 1922. The 7007 and her seven sisters were the only
Lima-built locomotives on the Q. I remember from reading the same article
that the B-1's and their Baldwin-built sibling B-1-A's were all considered good
"snow" engines by crews on Lines West in comparison to the diesel E units
that replaced them.
The Corbin book records that 7007 was sold for scrap in June 1953 and
4108 was sold in July 1953, so you're timing was perfect to catch both
locomotives in route to either the Q's scrap dock at Eola, IL, or the
Northwestern Steel & Wire scrap yard at Sterling, IL.
It appears that both locomotives were being "relayed" east on locals that
would pick them up and set them out as traffic warranted while in route to
their final terminal. A work horse and a race horse both making their last
trip together..... Note that 4108's tender oil bunker had been removed for
use on another oil burning locomotive or MOW piece of equipment. Best
Regards - Louis
In a message dated 4/1/2016 10:35:12 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
Thanks Doug...Believe it or not, I had forgotten about those
photos...The date was July 1953.
As a little "addendum" to this matter Doug which I may have forgotten to
mention to you when I visited Villisca last summer...One of the engines...I
forget the number now..it was one of the 7000 series ....it probably was the
7007 mentioned in Doug's post was the engine mentioned in Jim Reisdorff's
"Alliance and Everywhere West" book a few years ago in a true story written by
a fireman on that engine on the run from Ravenna to Alliance in a "really bad"
snow storm in January or February 1949 those of you of a historical bent
will recall that the winter going into 1949 hosted the worst snow storms since
the "great blizzard of 1888. . It's a pretty exciting story,
especially as it was written by an actual participant in a real event.
The former fireman is now deceased, but if you have the book you can
look it up and read it again. I think you can read the engine numbers on
the photos and check it out''
The young man standing in the gangway of one of the engines is BRHS
member Jim Christen...Then age 19...I was 17..... present ages not to be
revealed, but those of you astute in the "old math" can figure them out.
Pete
-----Original
Message-----
From: 'Douglas Harding' doug.harding@iowacentralrr.org [CBQ]
<CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent:
Fri, Apr 1, 2016 6:44 am
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Lincoln Dead Line 1951 - Part
One [6 Attachments]
[Attachment(s) from Douglas
Harding included below]
Pete mentioned some photos he had. Last summer he visited
me and shared some photos he had taken of Villisca in the 50s, which he let me
scan. In Villisca that day was a string of dead engines, including 4108
&7007. Pete’s photos are attached. He can tell us the date, I don’t recall
it.
Doug Harding
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Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com | View attachments on the web
1 of 1 Photo(s)
Posted by: LZadnichek@aol.com
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