July 23, 2018
Doug - In checking my digital image archive, unfortunately, I do not have any images of Class R-5-A's switching Naperville. R-4's yes, R-5-A's no. The closest I have is one of Class R-5-A 2151 taken at Streator, IL., in 1947 that I have attached. It's quite possible that 2151 would've worked the Cicero to Eola way freight during your early years growing-up in Naperville. This image will show our Group members just exactly what a Class R-5-A looked like from the fireman's side.
As for Class O-1-A's switching Naperville, no luck there either. The closest I can come is one of the 4959 switching the yard at nearby Downers Grove, IL, on a snowy December 25, 1951 that I have attached. 4959 most likely was powering the Cicero to Eola way freight that day. As Group members can see, a Class O-1-A 2-8-2 was quite a bit larger than a Class R-5-A 2-6-2. The 2151 was retired and sold for scrap in September 1953 and the 4959 likewise in May 1955.
Thanks again for sharing your memories with us, particularly the rerailing of the Class O-1-A in Naperville. You're right, the R-5-A's with their shorter wheelbase wouldn't had the same problem as the O-1-A on a tight curve. The 2-6-2's in general were a very successful design and lasted right up until the end of the steam era on the Q. They were perfect for light switching, way freights, work trains and branch lines until doomed by diesels. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 7/23/2018 11:16:40 AM Central Standard Time, dehosler@frontier.com writes:
Thank you. It would have been anywhere from 1945 to 1947 (using my age). The Prairie was replaced by an O-1A but I can’t date that very well. Even though young, my dad (who worked for the PFE in Chicago and was a traveling agent) told me to count drivers on engines (as pass passengers we traveled a lot by rail) so I noticed the difference.
My oldest brother (18 years older than I – he born in 1922 and I in 1940) told me he remembered the mainline way freight being pulled by a 0-6-0. I would have noticed that from about five years of age on. For me from the time I could remember to dieselization, it was Prairies and then Mikes. I do have to be careful with “kid” memories. For one thing something I saw as a kid usually isn’t nearly as big as I remembered it. The only reason I am confident of the engines being an R-5A and then an O1-A is that the pictures of anything else in Corbin and Kerka’s book on Q Steam don’t look right and the pictures of those engines look perfect. And you obviously have much better evidence.
Sidebar: The curve off the mainline to that spur was rather tight and one time the the rear drivers of the Mike rode off the rails as the train was returning to the mainline. We neighborhood kids heard a commotion – the engine wasn’t moving but it was making a lot of chuffing so we all showed up to watch. With the re-railing device that hung on the tender in place next to the rail the crew was rocking the engine back and forth to get the rear driver to settle back in. It went on for a long time and we boys learned every swear word we would ever need to know. But it finally did settle. The Prairies I would assume would not have had that problem!
On 7/23/18, 10:49 AM, "Louis Zadnichek via Groups.Io" <LZadnichek=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
July 23, 2018
Doug - Thanks for sharing your "firebox memory." Question, what approximate year would this have occurred? I have some images of Class R-5's switching at Naperville taken over a number of years. One of the images might show the locomotive you're talking about. Let me know - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 7/22/2018 9:36:31 PM Central Standard Time, dehosler@frontier.com writes:
Louis:
Your story about the firebox brings one to mind. I grew up in Naperville a block and a half from the triple track mainline. A spur that Leo Phillipp pointed out to me was originally for limestone quarries in Naperville came a half a block from my house. My grandfather was living with us and he would take me to see the way freight steamer (an R-5A) that backed with cars (no longer for quarry material or for a brewery but lumber and coal) down that spur and then came back to the neighborhood store two houses closer to the spur than ours. The crew got out and bought food from the store and had lunch. One time the crew asked my grandfather if I wanted to come up to the cab. Of course I did. I was not used to the inside of the cab and marveled at all the knobs and gauges. Someone asked, “Do you want to see the fire?” I nodded excitedly (I was about five years old). The butterfly doors opened and I felt as though I were looking into the jaws of hell; I had never seen a fire that stunningly bright and intense and large. In fright I backed up to the tender and the crew (and my grandfather) laughed. To me that fire was not hot as hell, it was a glimpse of hell itself!
Doug (the less knowledgeable Doug)
On 7/22/18, 3:31 PM, "Louis Zadnichek via Groups.Io" <LZadnichek=aol.com@groups.io <about:blank> > wrote:
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 <about:blank> 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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