December 27, 2016
Merry Christmas And Happy New Year Across Lines East And West To All Group
Members
First, for those on Lines East, a memorable wintry scene of an
unidentified Class O-1 2-8-2 at Mendota, IL, taken in 1918:
If you look closely, the O-1 is coupled tender-to-tender with another
locomotive and that might be a baggage car coupled behind it. My guess is this
is "plow extra" assigned to buck snow drifts. If the front locomotive
got stuck, then the rear one could pull it out of the drift. Plus, If the
front locomotive derailed on iced over rails, then the crew could uncouple the
rear locomotive and head back to the division point for help. Makes me "cold"
just to look at the image. I've also attached for those Group members who have
difficulty with embedded images.
Next, for those on Lines West, an undated image of a snow plow train
somewhere in Nebraska powered by at least five locomotives including the
unidentified Class H 2-6-0 with the engineer looking out of his cab towards the
photographer:
This was a badly faded print that took some manipulating to bring out the
detail. It took a lot of guts for engine crews to operate in such a manner
"mostly running blind" in the clouds of snow and coordinating by whistle signal.
If the lead locomotive "hit" a drifted cut too fast and derailed or stopped
suddenly, the shock and momentum could cause the following locomotives
to jack-knife creating a BIG mess to clean-up. This was a dangerous way to
railroad in the early 1900s. I've also attached this image.
And, what better than a good Christmas story about the Q in Casper,
WY:
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 has arrived wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt festooned with
holly. Like last year at this time, it's in the 70s! Merriest of Christmases and
Happiest of New Years to All - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
