March 20, 2017
All - This is OK to open as from me. I accidentally hit the send
key. Was saving this link for posting at some later date. Although not Q, I've
found very little over the years posted to YouTube on Q steam and diesel power
in revenue service. A little on the 5632/4960 fan trips and some on the Pioneer
Zephyr, but nothing on steam and early diesel.
I was born (1946) ten years too late for Q steam. Had I been born ten years
earlier (1936), then I could've been track side to first hand witness and
photograph the transition from steam to diesel during the early 1950s. But, by
the time I turned 13 (1959) and had a decent camera, remaining Q steam
sat in deadlines at either Galesburg or Lincoln. Of course, had I been born
ten years earlier, I'd be 80 today and not 70 and I think I'll stick with being
70 all things being equal.
The only GTW steam I ever saw live were the 0-8-0 switchers at
Northwestern Steel & Wire in Sterling, IL, along with the ill-fated 4-6-2
No. 5629 owned by Dick Jensen and used in fan trip service out of Chicago.
Thus, I was attracted to this particular video since it vividly portrays
the end-of-steam. The cab views just as easily could've been taken on a Q
locomotive on either Lines East or West.
From the clarity of the video, it must've been shot in silent 16mm and then
dubbed (more or less in sync) from sounds recorded at the time on a tape
recorder. In some of the cab views, you can seen someone holding a thin,
pencil-like microphone. Also, the camera must've been fitted to a pole that was
stuck out of the fireman's side of the cab to record line side views.
Too bad someone with a 16mm motion picture camera and tape recorder wasn't
out there on Lines East and West during the early to mid-1950s recording the end
of the steam era on the Q. Just think today how great it'd be to see a Class
M-4-A 2-10-4 "whooshing" its way north out of Centralia with a coal drag, or
doubleheaded Class O-3 2-8-2's powering a grain extra out of Hastings.
Well, perhaps, somewhere on the endless rails of eternity we'll have a
chance to see, hear and smell Q steam power (and early Shovelnoses, EAs and FTs)
hard at work running-up revenue miles. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 3/20/2017 12:57:45 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes: