Siemens Charger number 4611 is ready to depart Carbondale, Illinois with the morning Saluki to Chicago on the morning of July 7, 2023. Superliners are being used on the Illini and Saluki trains due to their heavier weight and improved detection by the PTC signal system. Photo by Chris Dees.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – a great show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harback for their 1933 musical Roberta. It still is popular song, having been performed by numerous performers, but the most famous version was recorded in 1958 by The Platters.
Not so wonderful, however, for engine crews racing across America’s landscape. The configuration of steam motive power dictated that the smoke stack be up front ahead of the boiler. Besides, that exhaust is what created the draft keeping the firebox ablaze.
Most railroads ignored the problem, but the Union Pacific and a few others solved the problem to a degree with “elephant ears,” as they were nick-named. The ears extended in front of the smokebox, and the forward movement, at speed, created an updraft. At slow speeds, tough luck, and hope for a good side wind. The Southern Pacific solved the smoke problem particularly in their many tunnels by buying Cab-forward steam locomotives.
I can remember vividly parked along the Chilkat River in Alaska in 1958, drinking terrible home brew, watching the Northern Lights, and listening to the Platters new hit; “Smoke Gets in your Eyes,” static and all. (It does get better than that…)
Credits: Classic Trains – Winter 2010, Photos: top Stan Kistler collection, bottom Allen W. Madison
Another commodity forfeited to trucks. A special Northern Pacific Railway train loaded with sheep, leaving Blatchford, Montana over 90 years ago. Blatchford is on the mainline between Glendive and Miles City. Most railroads got out of the livestock shipments in the 70s. Part of the problem was those thousands of stock cars were unusable for anything else about eleven months out of the year.
That passenger car is a “drover” car, transporting the owners and handlers of the stock. There was a requirement that stock must be off-loaded, fed and watered, if the transport time exceeded 36 hours. Thus, the owners and shepherds on board.
When we were in Butte, MT., in the late 60s the cattle trains loaded in SW Montana could make the trip to slaughter houses in Omaha, just under the 36 hours, with little time to spare. There still was a drover car as the stock needed to be off-loaded, and sorted at the slaughter houses. One year I had the opportunity to ride along, invited by an owner. This train from Dillon, MT was a joint effort by about a dozen stockman owners and their cowboy handlers. After some thought about: being confined in a drover’s car or a string of cabooses, uncertain dietary sources, undoubtedly too much booze, and I don’t need to tell you about what’s on their boots…. Then, how do we get home?, a charter bus. uh uh. – Gary
Our goal is to put one of the Last L&N Steam Engines in the world back to work pulling excursion trains for our museum, as well as educate the public regarding the heritage of Kentucky’s Railroads and the people who built them. The L&N 152 needs both boiler and running gear work. Please visit the Crew 152 Facebook page for the most up to date information and photos.
American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harback for their 1933 musical Roberta. It still is popular song, having been performed by numerous performers, but the most famous version was recorded in 1958 by The Platters.
The other entries were:
Our goal is to put one of the Last L&N Steam Engines in the world back to work pulling excursion trains for our museum, as well as educate the public regarding the heritage of Kentucky’s Railroads and the people who built them.
The L&N 152 needs both boiler and running gear work. Please visit the Crew 152 Facebook page for the most up to date information and photos.
This information is also available on the KRM website and Facebook pages.
Restoration work continues on steam locomotive 152.
Submitted by Gary Ostlund
The single-track swing bridge was built by the Northern Pacific RR for entry into Aberdeen, Washington. It has a rather strange footprint; in that it wraps itself around a warehouse building. The bridge is rather difficult to photograph, short of trespassing, or getting wet. I tried to copy the Google Street image from the highway bridge at the bottom of the pix, but no luck. The pic I got from the street at the right margin does not do justice to its design and placement. Thus, the Google earth image.
Opened on October 21, 1898, the Wishkah River Bridge has been in daily use ever since, including a brisk business today hauling import autos to market. The Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad, a short line currently services the Grays Harbor region, connecting with the BNSF. That connection is in Centralia on the busy double-track mainline north to Tacoma and south toward Oregon and California.
The harbor was once served by the Milwaukee and Union Pacific entering the harbor from the south, crossing into Aberdeen on yet another swing bridge, now long gone. The NP was the major player though, with branches from Aberdeen and Hoquiam out to Moclips on the ocean, and to Markham on the south side of the harbor out near Westport, (think beaches, salmon fishing and cranberries).
In the heyday of railroading on the harbor the rails served two pulp and paper mills, numerous large sawmills, a thriving shake and shingle industry and active seaport. In the mid-60s when we lived there, at about supper time all three railroads sent eastward an impressive array of freight.
Congratulations to the winners of our Chapter photo contest winner for March!
Click Images above for larger view!
One of the great things about the internet, pictures and stories are at our fingertips. We just have to be careful to check the sources. Living in Ellijay, GA, in the late 60s into the early 80s was a treat. L&N’s Hook & Eye line served our small town bringing fuel oil, propane, coal, sand, surplus cheese, and other oddities on the team track. They took finished lumber, wood chips, and pulpwood. Needless to say, the 80s saw a huge decline in rail traffic as trucks became the norm and big guys (Seaboard System/Family Lines/CSX didn’t want to deal with branch lines. I got see miles of old hoppers shoved into the hills for storage thinking the end was near. Then steps in the Georgia Northeastern RR, and the rest is history. Still not much goes on between Ellijay and Blueridge, but, the Blue Ridge Scenic RR prospers and freight service is robust on the southern end between Tate and Marietta. Send me your hometown stories for publishing!
Bill Thomas, editor
Submitted by Gary Ostlund
First Place January 2023 West KY NRHS Photo Contest – RJ Corman locomotive 3803 eastbound, pulling a local freight between Russellville and Auburn, Kentucky. – Photo by William Farrell
Second Place January 2023 West KY NRHS Photo Contest -Norfolk Southern Intermodal #218 has taken the siding at Buechel, KY to wait for a Kentucky Utilities Coal Train #76J to charge the hill towards Danville, KY. NS #218 has no work this day and will be at the home terminal in Louisville in short order. Buechel, KY on January 27, 2023. – Photo by Bill Grady
An all-NS day at Warrior Coal. Photo by Bill Thomas
(Apple iPhone SE (2nd generation) Wide Camera — 28 mm ƒ1.8. 2682 × 1509)
A LITTLE ODD – This loaded CSX coal train on the Warrior branch, Madisonville was long hood forward on February 10, 202, when editor Bill Thomas caught it idling and waiting on a crew.
(Apple iPhone SE (2nd generation) Wide Camera — 28 mm ƒ1.8. 2682 × 1509)
The engine number is obscured, but this late model Southern Pacific cab-forward is sticking its nose out of a dead-end tunnel. Say-what..? The location is Cascade Summit on the line from Eugene to Klamath Falls, Oregon.
A helper district from Oakridge ended here at the summit. The helpers were cut off and turned on a wye for the return trip downhill. The problem here at Cascade Summit was cramped space, and a turning wye requires a fair amount of real estate to function.
Problem solved, burrow a tunnel long enough negotiate the movement. The track leading out of the picture to the left links up with the Westbound mainline towards Klamath Falls. The other towards Oakridge and Portland. . A turntable was impractical unless covered, and snowplows easily keep the wye clear. To my knowledge this arrangement is unique to the Southern Pacific. Photo and caption submitted by Gary Ostlund.
My daughter in NY sent me this snap shot of her cat.
Anyone see any resemblance to a famous RR mascot?
Hint: Sleep like a kitten…