Some Old Slides Rerun

[CGW101c]

This last slide is along a fill by Ashland. The trees have grown up so much you can't hardly see the trains anymore.

 

[CGW101c]

2nd slide is a NE football special

 

[CGW101c]

I chased the GN F's to Waverly. Fun time.

 

[CGW101c]

4960 is "Super Slide" from my dads twin lens reflex.

 

[CGW101c]

Into the CGW. Spent many hours watching them on the north side of my grand parents farm outside of Chicago.

 

[CGW101c]

That's all for a bit.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Love the slides of the diesels of the old BN and its predecessor roads. While I spent all but five years of the 50's and 60's in the PNW, I lived in California and Arizona from 1973-1987 before moving to Chicagoland. During those years in exile I was determined to model every diesel paint scheme of all the predecessor roads including the CB&Q. Unfortunately most of those old models are sitting untouched in boxes and my wife periodically bugs me to get rid of them.

I also collected all of the BN Annuals, which is why I am familiar with some of the areas around Omaha. If I recall correctly, all the U-25B's were assigned to a division in Nebraska (Omaha?, Lincoln?) for maintenance, which is why so many of them show up in your old slides.

 

[Bill Anderson]

What is C&NW BU 37? Braking unit? It lacks the fans of a powered unit or the antennae array of the B units stripped and modified for use as radio control cars for the first generation of radio controled helpers engines.

 

[CGW101c]

According to Paul K Withers book "Diesels of the Chicago and Northwestern", BU-37 was a slug rebuilt from BN 625, an F7b, at Huron, SD Nov 13, 1971 and retired on Sept 23 1980.
It is possible that U-25b's were assigned to Lincoln for maintenance. We sure saw a lot of them.

 

[CGW101c]

All time favorite locomotive for sight and particularly sound was the F unit. I know they had the same prime mover as a geep, but they sounded different. Carbody construction maybe?

 

[CGW101c]

2nd favorite is a GP-7, although lately I have become fascinated with the Alco's RS-2 and S-2.

 

[CGW101c]

Always many locos at Missouri Valley, IA. Gateway to the Union Pacific.

 

[CGW101c]

And remember all you youngsters out there, film was about 2 to 5 dollars a roll and processing was about the same. My top hourly wage in 1970 to 1972 was a whopping $2.10. Although there were times when I would bring in a roll and take out a finished roll every 2 days. for a week or so.

 

[CGW101c]

And I recorded a lot of sounds, so there were cassette tapes to buy. That slowed way down when I got married in 1973.

 

[CGW101c]

I lived around 72nd and Pacific and then later near the Irvington line of the CNW. Daily freights provided entertainment at lunch near what is now Ne Furniture Mart and and evening train to drop off cars at a concrete plant along Keystone Drive. They did "flying drops" as the switch was on the south end of the siding.

 

[CGW101c]

CNW 1720 was my favorite because the horn would jump octaves and sounded really neat. I use it as my message ringtone 45 years later.

 

[CGW101c]

When they rebuilt the 1720 to the 4301, they fixed the horn darn it. According to the Withers book, the 1719 and 1720 were built for passenger service. I got a ride in the 1719 as it switched United AG on Jones street.

 

[CGW101c]

The last one in this series is picking orders at Missouri Valley, with the order hoop.

 

[CGW101c]

Note the Wig-Wag signal at Logan

 

[CGW101c]

Off into the mish/mash of borrowed and leased power common in those years.