Re: [CBQ] BRHS Spring meet Savanna,IL April 26 and 27

["Don Winn" <donswinn@gmail.com>]

I've never been able to justify travelling to the 1-day spring meet, but this is the year!  Looking forward to hearing the stories and putting boots on the ground in Savanna.

Don Winn

On Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 10:56 AM Leo Phillipp via groups.io <qutlx1=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:

For those thinking about registering for the BRHS spring meet I would encourage you to attend. In addition to the camaraderie and swap there are a number of interesting afternoon and evening presentations scheduled.

Here’s an introduction to mine.

Savanna was a crew change point for three divisions (LaCrosse,Galesburg and Aurora).
Up until the early 1960s freight train crews got their rest in their waycars on the three waycar tracks in the yard. The 1PM presentation entitled “Laying over at Savanna” will detail what that involved for the men as well as all the switching involved getting the right waycar onto the correct outbound train. The Aurora Division was one of the last, if not the last division on the entire Q to agree to pooled waycars in 1968/69. The presentation will look at why it took so long and the changes that brought to operations.

We will also look into the locomotive crew bunk room upstairs at the roundhouse office building. It was used well into the 1970s by one Aurora Division engineer long after all other men went to the beautiful,spacious Radke hotel downtown. We will discuss that facility too.

The presentation will begin with a discussion of the passenger train crew bunk room at the Savanna depot. Along with how different the passenger crew layovers and rotations were compared to freight crews. Just one more reason the “varnish” had the highest seniority men.

The evening presentation on the Savanna Army Depot will be interesting and informative as I’ve been to the facility over the years. It was massive. Today it’s a railcar storage and transload sight along with industry operations.

Leo Phillipp

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