Jace you are too generous as at that
time I had zero knowledge of Alco's, except I knew it was an
Alco.? A bit earlier I thought anything with a cab? someplace in
the middle was a GP 7.? As it looked a bit like the AF T&P
model--and who couldn't love that scheme!? While the crew was out
for beans, I went up to the engine idling and read the builder's
plate --American Locomotive works 1947!? I was disappointed for
sure but those RSD's served that area until I was in college. But
some time after that they were re-motored, controls reversed and
had their noses chopped!
Later in College--the campus was sort
of in the middle of the CNW/M&SL wye as I could see a crew
shoving a few cars around, but I was always buzzing around between
classes and service was hit or miss plus but mostly I was into
drinking some beer, keeping out of Vietnam and loving girls too!
Bob Werre
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I knew that part of eastern Iowa: serving a small church in
Burlington while working on a PhD in Iowa City (and driving
between the two each weekend) gave me ample opportunity to enjoy
the area.? The NRHS had a number of excursions in the area which
I would love to have gone on, but sadly they were all on
Sundays...? The Crandic did run at least one daily train right
through the University campus, crossing the Iowa River right
behind the Literature building.
Full marks to Bob for recognizing an RSD at age six!? I dread
the thought of painting it, but the RailMaster/Steam Depot RSD
kit I just bought will probably need to be C&NW, as those
were very common on the "Alco LIne" from LaCrosse out to South
Dakota, passing right through Eyota where my last church before
full retirement was located.? Actually, the church was out in
the country in the township of Viola, which had its own station
a mile west on the Plainview branch.? I copied a lovely photo
from the internet of a C&NW RSD on a fairly long train
heading south from Plainview; the branch had been gone for 12-15
years when I arrived, except for a mile or so off the mainline
where the DM&E parked rolling stock not urgently needed for
service.
When I was a boy (a few years before Bob), there was an auction
barn in Springville NY where I went with relatives several
times; it was very close to the B&O (ex-BR&P) tracks,
although I have no idea how much stock traffic there may have
been on the railroad by then.? This was the late 1940's or early
1950's, when cattle traffic was already going to trucks,
especially in the northeast.? It lasted longer in the upper
midwest and far west, but even there rail movement of livestock
was largely gone by the mid-1960's.
Bob Werre