June 13, 2017
Group - Since it's a stormy afternoon in south Alabama and I can't do any
yard work, let me share a couple of inserted/attached images of CB&Q Class
O-5-A No. 5621 with Train No. 39, the Exposition Flyer. I had very little
information to go on with identifying both images, so I contacted Group members
Bill Barber, Bob Campbell and Hol Wagner. All have all generously
contributed to better identifying both images:
CB&Q 5621 Train No. 39 Exposition Flyer Princeton,
IL 1939
CB&Q 5621 Train No. 39 Exposition Flyer Galesburg,
IL Undated
In Hol's words (slightly edited), "5621 (top image) is on No. 39, the
Exposition Limited, at Princeton, Ill., in the summer of 1939, showing that the
west bound train did indeed carry a 60-foot RPO car. And I believe the
power lines along the tracks at Galesburg (bottom image) were on the south
side, away from the depot, as shown in this photo. But No. 39 was due into
Galesburg from Chicago at 3:10 p.m., and it seems to me that would be pretty
early for the sun to already be around far enough to illuminate the north side
of a west bound. But there were no other west bounds due through Galesburg
later in the afternoon/early evening except No. 1, the DZ. I suppose it's
possible No. 39 was running late that day, perhaps held at Chicago for a late
connection from the east. Trains 39-40 ran through between Chicago and Denver as
the first/last leg of the Chicago-Oakland round trip -- the Expos was the
predecessor of the California Zephyr. And by 1939, the Q was running a
single engine through between Chicago and Denver on the passenger train, so 5621
would have run through from CUS to Denver. The Exposition Flyer and all the
known information on this train appeared in the big 264-page Burlington Bulletin
devoted to them, researched and written by Bill Schultz and me and
published back in 2003. The Princeton photo turned up after that
time and thus is not included in the Bulletin."
In Bob's words (slightly edited), "Photo of the engineer's side is
definitely taken at Galesburg. It is westbound on Main #2. Seminary
St. Tower would be to the right of the 5621. There's a man standing on the
fireman's side, just behind the pilot of the 5621; his left hand is in line with
the Quincy Freight Main that ran behind the tower. With regard to Hol's picture
of train No. 39, with the 5621 on the point, the location is MP 105, about
.6 of mile west of the Princeton depot. In the background, behind the
train, you can see the overhead signal bridge structure that was located at
MP104.61. This absolute signal was controlled by the main line dispatcher
to protect the trailing point hand-throw crossover located by the depot
if a way freight was doing station work at Princeton. When the
crossover was removed from service in the 1980's, so was this signal
bridge. Just east of the depot, at MP 103.61, is a corresponding "holding"
signal, used for the same purpose, that is still in service
today."
From my own perspective, the Galesburg view is a great in-station
image of an O-5-A straining against its bridle as the engineer looks back for
the conductor's high ball. Note the pile of clinker/ash below the ash pan
on the ground. The dirty laborer with his back to the engineer who
looks to be dragging a clinker hook probably just cleaned the O-5-A's ash
pan saving a time consuming trip to the roundhouse. Since there's plenty of coal
in the tender, 5621 probably coaled earlier at Mendota, IL, to the
east. With its blower cracked wide open, I bet 5621 was ready to
RUN to points west when the conductor gave the high ball.
Bill Barber and Bob Campbell both think the Galesburg image dates to either
just prior or early World War Two days as the ladder on the valve gear
hanger and spoked pilot wheels were removed from Class O-5-A
locomotives about that time. Also, 5621 looks to be a somewhat "older" at
Galesburg than at Princeton. A little amazing today in this digital
age that the Q trusted its Class O-5-A dual purpose 4-8-4's to run through
from CUS to Denver and back, a distance of over 800 miles. In the
Princeton image dated 1939, 5621 was probably just about a year old,
having been delivered new from the Q's West Burlington, IA, Shops
in July 1938. When 5621's time eventually ran out, she was sold for scrap
in April 1960 after rusting for several years in the Galesburg Dead
Line. Both images, to me, show the Q at its BEST - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope,
AL
