Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again,...
Transcript of Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again,...
![Page 1: Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en-By Mark D of the Antique Radio forum tional so the people who had](https://reader033.fdocuments.in/reader033/viewer/2022042311/5eda012c28db2d5ca2493cca/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Paducah Chapter
National Railway Historical Society
July 2013
First trip for the beast after the total re-
build. (We) left our shop right on the
hour, but ran very slow because of a
southbound coal train north of us that had a car with a broken drawbar that had to be
set out on a siding. That took several
hours to accomplish, and he had to get by
us before we could go north. So we
chugged along slowly to a siding some-
where around Camebridge where we
waited for another half hour or more, and
then the coal train, now back together
minus the bad-order car, blasted by at
track speed.
Then we got moving, but within 20 miles
hit slow order after slow order due to on-going track maintenance. So the trip was
slow getting there.
Once there, the steam engine cut
off and moved out of the way. The Am-
trak engine was then used as a switcher,
along with a diesel from the museum that
occupies the Duluth depot, to switch
some of our cars out of the consist and
added them to some of the museum cars.
From there, the Museum's steam engine, a
Soo Line Pacific that dates to the 1920's , was used to take this train to just past
Two Harbors - on the Lake Superior north
shore, as a dinner train. I heard it was
great.
My youngest sister showed up!
Hadn't seen her in years. She and her hus-
band have a lake place up on the iron
range. She drove down and found me in
the tool car on our train. I took her up in
the locomotive cab to show her around.
While we were in there, Steve showed up
and moved the engine out of the museum yard, backing down to a switch, where the
switch was aligned for another track,
where we moved into the museum yard
once again. So, my sister, who'd never
seen a steam engine, got to not only see
one that's live, but got a cab ride too. Sort
of.
Six o’clock arrived, and it was
my time to take over the engine. the fire-
man on duty handed me the bag ( a ritual
that leaves me holding the bag) and it was now all mine. I showed my sister what
goes on when you're just maintaining the
fire. I saw that I had inherited a good fire,
but the water in the glass was down lower
than I like, so I set to building up the fire
so that I could add enough water to get
the level where I want it. This takes time.
There was a photo-shoot scheduled. This is where a whole bunch of shutterbugs get
together to share their special lighting
equipment for super cool looking, but
really phony looking, night photos of, in
this case, a steam engine.
They have about twenty things called
Luma-Dynes (or something like that) that
flash for a brief fraction of a second at a
light about three times the power of the
sun. It seems like that anyway. I don't
know when they'll flash, but when they
go off, I can't see for a while. The cab is dark. I keep all the lights off
except for the gauge lights.
I battled with this for the next five hours,
but in the meantime the dinner train came
back. The museum people parked their
steam engine right next to me, on the
track just to the left of our engine, and
just slightly back. This was also for the
benefit of the shutterbugs. Now they
could start all over again with TWO
steam engines. They didn't bother me much taking their
photo's, but there were constant calls to
turn the headlight to dim, turn it to bright,
turn it off, turn it to bright, turn it to dim...
AAARGGGG!
Did I mention that this was Duluth?
Temperature was about 25 degrees out. I
was sort of cold. That museum engine
next to me blocked the cold wind from
the lake and heated what got
past it. Now ol' Markie was
a happy camper. 11’o clock came and I was
relieved of my duty just
when it was starting to get
fun. At least I had the fire
perfect for him and the wa-
ter was at about 3/4 glass.
Perfect, just how it should
be.
I messed around with some
other tasks for a few hours,
then got some sleep. Next day we left at noon
(The late departure is inten-
Milwaukee Road
261 Update By Mark D of the Antique Radio forum
tional so the people who had too much
fun last night have a chance to recover)
and went home. Again, being a 'new' en-
gine, we ran it easy. But it does need to be
tested, so just as we entered the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, and where the
50 mph speed changes (for only a few
miles) changes to 79 mph. We had to stop
to pick up a new pilot for this section, but
as we started out, Robert, the guy running
the engine at the moment, made a nice
gentle start, stretching the train nice and
easy, accelerated nicely to about 25 I'm
guessing, and then began to widen out on
the throttle fairly quickly. The chuff chuff
chuff turned into CHUFF CHUFF AND
and then to BOOM BOOM BOOM, and then as the engine continued to accelerate
the train the exhaust note got that wonder-
fully loud blast that I can only describe as
what I think a jet engine that's pulsating a
bit might sound like. A constant ROAR
that it slightly staccato.
He brought it up to track speed just in
time to begin slowing down as we would
no pass through BNSF's Northtown Yard.
That is only about two miles or so from
our shop. The old beast lives again, and I'm sure
there's a lot more trips left to run into the
Did I mention that it was Duluth? I totally
HATE Duluth! Cold and foggy all the
time. And dingy. Along with that, It
seems like a northern version of a dusty
plains city that never has summer. My
mother grew up there, and we still have
relatives there. I spent a lot of time up
there as I grew up, and never did really
like it. Cold. Dreary. Decrepit.
But when we're taking the steam engine
there, I'm all for it.
![Page 2: Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en-By Mark D of the Antique Radio forum tional so the people who had](https://reader033.fdocuments.in/reader033/viewer/2022042311/5eda012c28db2d5ca2493cca/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
PAL: No exact figures on the
ex CSX SD 70’s now in service, but they are increasing, some in
new P&L paint, and some in the
old paint with “patches.” As ex-
pected, the work is being divided
between VMV and Progress
Rail. As far as can be deter-mined, none with EVWR or
A&O lettering yet. However,
early in June, CEFX 106 and
CEFX 122, two of the leased SD
90’s, left Paducah on the BNSF
local headed for the EVWR in-
terchange at Woodlawn.
On June 14th, the Louisville Cou-
rier-Journal reported that the
P&L had announced that a bro-
ken rail had been determined to
have caused the October 29th de-
railment near West Point that caused massive explosions and
fire, restricted Dixie Highway
traffic, and even closed the Ohio
River for a time. The company
declined to speculate on what
broke the rail, but described it as a “transverse/compound fissure.
VMV: Nothing particularly un-
usual to report. The usual
GMTX’s including GMTX
9041, one of the iconic Oakway
SD 60’s, this one listed as being sold to OmniTrax; GMTX 151, a
switcher (there are usually vari-
ous switchers seen around the
plant); GMTX 2238 & 2237, GP
38-2, ex Long Island RR; and
GMTX 2222, a GP 38 AC, ex
GTW. Also, as reported above
some of the SD 70’s have been
seen in the paint shop or outside in primer.
DISCOVERY PARK OF
AMERICA:
The big local railroad news this month is the arrival in Union
City, TN of a steam locomotive
and several passenger cars that
have been placed on tracks the
Discovery Park of America site.
DPA is a 50 acre, $ 100 million
attraction funded by the Kirkland Foundation, and being com-
pleted on Union City’s northwest
border. The education and enter-
tainment complex is scheduled
to open with a ribbon cutting on
November 2 and it is anticipated
that it will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
The locomotive is a Swedish-
built 4-6-0, No. 1149, with a
5000 gallon coal tender, that for-
merly belonged to the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad in
Maine. The locomotive and cars
have been placed on a 250 ft.
section of track near a new vin-
tage depot. The locomotive and
cars were moved by train on flats
through Canada, and down to Union City by Canadian Na-
tional. The unloading of the lo-
comotive and the wheel sets of
the cars onto the tracks, and then
the lowering of the cars onto the
wheel sets was done by massive
cranes, supervised by former UP
executive Steve Lee.
Also moved to the new site was the former G.M. & O. caboose
that for many years has been be-
side the old N.C. & St. L. /G.M.
& O. depot in downtown Union
City. It was one of 40 built in
1946 by American Car & Foun-dry for the Alton Railroad, but
has been five various paint
schemes, and was presented by
the I.C.G. railroad to the late
Col. Tom Elam upon his retire-
ment after 48 years as the local
ICG attorney. The unit has been historically accurately restored,
is fully equipped both inside and
outside and currently painted in
G.M. & O. colors and logo. It
has been placed at the end of the
passenger cars.
Although many rail purists
(including this writer) may ques-
tion choosing a European style
locomotive with buffers, in an
American Historical park, the display should be an attractive
and eye-catching addition. Ide-
ally, the track would be extended
to circle the park, and the train,
which was apparently in running
condition in Maine, could be
made to run again. But that is a rail fan talking! (Above informa-
tion from Pat McDurmon, the
Union City Messenger, John
Deming, and others).
FIRE UP 611: Most rail fans
are familiar with former NS
Bob Johnston
![Page 3: Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en-By Mark D of the Antique Radio forum tional so the people who had](https://reader033.fdocuments.in/reader033/viewer/2022042311/5eda012c28db2d5ca2493cca/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Published monthly by the Paducah Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. Send your news, photos to:
Editor — Charles Gibbons
President…........…......Logan Blewett Vice President…….......John Deming
Secretary…..…......Charles Gibbons
Historian…........……Jack Johnston
Treasurer..................Glen Pollender
Program…....…...….…..Dick Kastas National Director.…..Bob Johnston
Directors…………..……...Dick Kastas, Charles Gibbons, Logan Blewett
Membership — Charles Gibbons 3409 Central Avenue, Paducah 42001
Roundhouse Notes
Class J 611. At least one of our
members, Bill Wood, has ridden
behind the famous steamer when it ran on Norfolk Sothern’s fa-
mous steam excursions. When
they ended abruptly in 1994, be-
cause of management changes at
NS, the engine was placed on
display in the Virginia Museum of Transport. Now a move is un-
derway to restore the 4-8-4 to
operating condition and run it
again. This coincides with the
reopening of a modified steam
program in cooperation with the
Tennessee Valley Railroad in Chattanooga. On June 28th the
results of a feasibility study was
announced that said the project
was doable, and the campaign
continues. For further informa-
tion and history of 611 go to
www.fireup611.org.
FREIGHT TRAFFIC UP: On
June 7, the Association of
American Railroads announced
that in May, freight car loadings
increased over the same month in the previous year for the first
time since February 2012. 11 or
20 categories peaked with in-
creases ranging from 5.2 per cent
for sand and gravel to 41.8 per
cent for crude oil. Total carloads
increased by 0.7 per cent over May 2012. Economists say that
increased freight car loadings
generally point to a stronger
economy.
MUSEUM: The computer, with
very similar results from a man-ual count, shows 386 visitors in
June, compared to 290 in June
2012. This is a nice increase,
helped by a visit on June 21st of
77 children and adults from the
McNabb Elementary School
Summer program….. One Mon-
day when the museum is nor-mally closed, I was called by
Penny Fields, Director of the
William Clark Museum, who
asked me to open to show it to
the sons of C.C. Thompson, who
were in town to participate at a
news conference at her museum. Mr. Thompson while an em-
ployee of the I.C. R.R. in Padu-
cah in 1940 invented an im-
provement to the Walschaert
Valve Gear for steam locomo-
tives, which greatly improved their performance by reducing
vibration and “seeking” for the
rails. The Clark museum has a
large working model of the Wal-
schaert gear in their foyer. Inter-
estingly, while I was in our mu-
seum, waiting for, and then showing the Thompson brothers
through, six other people walked
in, “off the street,” all of them
coming from out of town, espe-
cially to see the railroad mu-
seum. It makes you wonder how
many people we miss when we are closed, but of course because
of lack of volunteers and other
considerations, it is not possible
at the present to open any more
than we are. SPEAKING OF
WHICH, the first of 13 river
boat visits will occur on July 1st.
Please consider and volunteer some time as a host if called, or
even if not called. The schedule
is available at the museum.
MEETNG PROGRAM:
Charles Gibbons will present a
video on NASA’s railroad at the Kennedy Space Center launch
facilities.
Meeting time Tuesday July 9th
7PM.
McCracken County Library
Second Floor Meeting room.
![Page 4: Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en ... · Milwaukee Road and went home. Again, being a 'new' en-By Mark D of the Antique Radio forum tional so the people who had](https://reader033.fdocuments.in/reader033/viewer/2022042311/5eda012c28db2d5ca2493cca/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Roundhouse Notes
% Charles Gibbons
3409 Central Ave
Paducah KY 42001
Gosh! Its almost time for
the meeting! We sure
don’t want to miss it.
TUESDAY
July 9th
7 PM
MCCRACKEN
COUNTY
LIBRARY
SECOND FLOOR
Milwaukee Road 261 First trip to Duluth MN In May 2013