Re: [CBQ] Merry Christmas And Happy New Year Across Lines East And West

["Kenneth Fleming kf5632@gmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

My father whom hired out on the Q in 1914, used to talk plowing snow with five engines and a buck plow.  He said that they would backup a mile or so, then run ahead until they stalled.  They did this until they cleared the line or the "Hog Law" caught them.  Now this was in Illinois.  Snow was higher than the caboose.

On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 12:21 PM, LZadnichek@aol.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

[Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com included below]

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:

 

http://casperjournal.com/news/article_dc195b24-06b2-56a1-ab6f-5af29a0a5365.html

 

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

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Posted by: Kenneth Fleming <kf5632@gmail.com>

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