Re: [CBQ] waning days of steam

["Kirby Lambert kirby@prospectortech.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

Hill's book Jefferson McGraw also has a view of branch line railroading circa 1927. It is from the POV of the son of a railroader but still interesting.

Kirby Lambert

On Jan 2, 2016, at 12:02 PM, Michael Woodruff mwoodruff54@gmail.com [CBQ] wrote:

 

I've read it.  It's entertaining, and a lot of what goes on is based on fact, but a few things are stretched in the name of artistic license.

Weldon Hill was the pseudonym of William Ralph Scott who was from Skedee, OK, where there was in fact a "virgin" coal chute (see Evan Werkema's site at http://atsf.railfan.net/chutes/)

This was on Santa Fe's Cushing District which ran through oil country, so steam locomotives were oil-fired fairly early on.

There was also a doodlebug on this line in the early 1950s which ran as trains #51 and 52 daily from Arkansas City to Shawnee and back, on a roughly parallel schedule to the one described in the book.

The locomotives that George maintains are described as Baldwin 4-6-0s built in 1938.  I don't believe Santa Fe had any "modern" 4-6-0s; a pair of older Prairies would have been more likely in the service and region described.  Of course, the railroad in the book isn't the Santa Fe, it's the "Kaw & Washita," and is likely an amalgam of the Santa Fe, Frisco and Katy, the lines Scott would have most likely been familiar with in his formative years.

I've never seen the movie they made from the book with James Garner in the title role, but I'd like to.

Scott/Hill's "Onionhead" and "The Iceman" are also entertaining, even though they contain no railroad themes.

msw

largofl

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 11:38 AM, kirby@prospectortech.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Have any of you read "The Long Summer of George Adams" by Weldon Hill?

The book is about how George copes with the end of the steam era. He is an engine watchman who cares for 2 engines overnight. He is located at the cross point of the branch-line. One engine comes in from each direction each evening and leaves the next morning. He is constantly worried about when diesels will eliminate his job. Pats of the small town exist because of the railroad (Boarding house, Cafe, rail yard) and are slowly dyeing with the railroad.

I am curious as to how accurate the story is to real life about how a small branch operated in the waning days of steam (early 1950's).

Kirby

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Posted by: Kirby Lambert <kirby@prospectortech.com>

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