Re: [CBQ] Burlington Bulletin No. 55 and KCZ ARZ Exhibition Runs

["Louis Zadnichek via Groups.Io" <LZadnichek=aol.com@groups.io>]

July 22, 2018

Hubert - My dad M.L. Zadnichek was train master at St. Joe from May 1953 to January 1956 when promoted to assistant superintendent at Omaha.  Dad was there when the St. Joe Division was dieselized in 1954 or 55, if my fading memory serves me right.  I can remember riding both steam and diesel switch engines in the yards on weekends. On one steam cab ride the fireman opened the firebox door and told me, "It's hot as Hell in there, boy." Dad was not amused and let the fireman know to keep his thoughts to himself......

On one diesel ride (it was on a Baldwin VO switcher) I got to sit on the engineer's lap and move the hand throttle. We switched a huge elevator complex.  Another memory is going with dad in the early evening down to the yards that bordered the Missouri River.  A huge US Army Corps of Engineers steam paddle wheel dredge was slowly making its way up/down the river and shown its bright spotlight on us and then blew its loud steamboat whistle while we waved back.  I was age seven to 10 while living in St. Joe.

Dad also took my mom and younger brother along on weekend day time signal tests.  We'd have to stay back out-of-view in the treeline while dad took his jumper cables to reset the track side signals, plus torpedoes and fusees for testing how alert the train crews were.  Remembering back all those years, there was one location on a descending grade where we could get a good view from the hillside above.  The four unit F units would be in dynamic braking mode and I can still hear the whine of the roof fans cooling the resistor grids.

Getting back to when the St. Joe Division was dieselized, dad corresponded regularly with his father who was a C&NW passenger agent in Racine, WI.  I have carbon copies of all his letters of that era and in one he tells my grandfather of the changes the diesels brought to the St. Joe Division. What impressed dad the most about diesels was their great efficiency compared to steam power.  Where a steam switcher would have to break and run for water and/or coal during its shift, its replacement diesel switcher almost never required water and if fuel ran low, a tank truck was called and fueled the switcher on site. Plus, when its shift was over, a steam switcher had to go back to the roundhouse to be lubricated and serviced, in addition to having its firebox cleaned. The diesel switcher could just take on a new engine crew where ever it was located and keep on switching.

Dad took me down to "say goodbye" when the last of the St. Joe Division steam locomotives were hauled away, main and eccentric rods removed with cabs boarded-up. Later, I learned that some of the still usable Class O-1-A's found their way to Denver for use on the C&S.  The other locomotives ended-up being scrapped. I still have a clipping from the St. Joe newspaper showing one of the dead O-1-A's ready to leave town.  Like you say, "Interesting stuff...." Anyway, here in south Alabama this afternoon, it's nearly as HOT as that steam switcher's firebox in St. Joe, or so it feels to an old man like me! Best Regards - Louis

L:ouis Zadnichek II

Fairhope, AL       

   

In a message dated 7/20/2018 5:16:17 PM Central Standard Time, domelinerdude=yahoo.com@groups.io writes:

Louis,

That is great to hear about your dad being the Burlington St. Joe Trainmaster!  I bet he is in the excursion photo referenced. The rare and interesting railroad events and operations he must have seen, including the transition from steam to diesel in that era. My dad worked for the Car Department on the Burlington at Murray Yard in North Kansas City before he passed away in 1958. He grew along the Burlington Route line in Cameron MO.

While I am not educated on the track arrangement at St. Joseph in the early 1950s, as some of our members may be, I do know of another photo of one of the 1953 KCZ ARZ exhibition excursion runs, that was published. Trains Magazine published a special Trains edition in 1953 or 1954 that includes a photograph taken in Kansas City from the former Broadway Bridge on the west end of Kansas City Union Station.  Fortunately, the photographer captured an image of two shiny E-5 A units back to back, bringing back to Union Station one of the excursion specials backwards, with Silver Terrace up against the trailing E-5 locomotive.

Interesting stuff.

Regards,

Hubert

 

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