The photos are very much a collection of "snaps", as trains were often moving. I just didn't have the time to pose trains for better shots. As it was the session lasted 4 hours with a quick break for a coffee!
I've got about 70 pix, so will add them in stages. Note that some photos may seem "grainy". If you click on them you get the full-size images which look much better.
Welcome to Springfield, Illinois in the early 1960s .
- Here's the trains in staging all set up and ready to go. From L to R: Beardstown - Springfield local, Galesburg - Springfield through freight and the Wabash RR transfer turn.
- And here are the waybills all in order.
- Another shot of staging. There are two other trains here - on the right is a Maintenance-Of-Way Extra and in the distance is the Illinois Terminal transfer turn, barely visible as the back of a green caboose.
- West Springfield. Not very busy today, just a couple of cars to pick up from the GM&O interchange.
- And here is Springfield yard. Not much going on in this shot, although in the distance we see a GP7 waiting to take out the morning local to Beardstown.
- And ACTION! The first movement of the day sees the through freight from Galesburg roll in to town behind an SD24 and F7A unit. This train brings in cars mostly from out west, including priority perishable shipments.
- GP7 225 departs Springfield yard with the local for Beardstown. On the right we see the yard switcher, a Baldwin VO-1000, which will shortly grab the recent arrival and start classifying the cars.
- The local passes through West Springfield - no work to do here today so keep 'em rollin'.
- Yard switcher 9366 has already placed the caboose (or "waycar" in CB&Q parlance) on the caboose track and started classifying the arrival from Galesburg. In the background we see that the road power has been released and is moving down the Engine track for stabling.
- 9358, another Baldwin VO-1000 switcher grabs its caboose in readiness to work the Jefferson Street pick-up turn. The yard switcher had placed it here whilst placing the caboose off the Galesburg freight on the caboose track.
- Here's the Wabash RR Transfer heading for Springfield yard at West Springfield. What's a a General Electric U25B doing on a short cross-town run? Apparently the Wabash didn't get on with their U-boats and they were relegated to lesser duties early on.
- The Wabash train gets as far as the yard limits (currently denoted by a sign on the facia), where it's held waiting for a track to become available (sound familiar?...). Time for the crew to catch up with the newspaper while the yard crew sort themselves out.
- Here the yard engine is still breaking up the arrival from Galesburg. Just one more car to go...
- Made it! The Wabash crew round the curve in to the yard. The switcher on the left is sitting on the Yard Lead and once the Wabash train has stopped, will drop on to the caboose and leave it on a convenient track for the Wabash crew to collect and return to their home yard. The CB&Q switcher will then start classifying the newly arrived cars.
- Here's the Wabash transfer turn returning to it's home yard with the caboose. Traffic to the Wabash from the CB&Q will be handled by a CB&Q turn (a common arrangement).
- The Jeff. Street set-out turn has followed the Wabash crew out of the yard. It's job is to collect cars at West Springfield and Jefferson Street then return to Springfield yard. Here is Baldwin VO-1000 9358 at West Springfield, having just picked up two cars from the GM&O interchange track.
- At Jefferson Street the switcher is marshalling it's train for the return to Springfield yard. It has picked-up a pair of empty coal hoppers from the coal dealer here.
- Back at Springfield yard, the switch crew are busy classifying cars and also switching the local industries. They have also collected som ecars from the RIP (Repair In Place) track (far right). Prior to departure and after arrival, all trains are inspected for defects. Any faulty cars are "bad ordered", and sent to the RIP track for repairs. They will stay there for the remainder of the session.
- The soybean mill at Springfield requires the engine to be on the east end of cars to be pushed in to the spur. There is a handy run-round track in the yard that lets the yard switcher get on the right end for the move.
- The Jeff Street set-out turn has made it back to the yard with more cars to be classified by the yard crew. Its good to be busy!
- Another car load of soybeans for processing...
- Springfield yard getting busy! As the cars arrive in trains or are pulled from industries, they are classified (sorted) depending on their destination. Here we have tracks holding cars as follows (Track 1 is on the right, Track 7 over on the left) - Track 1: cars for fowarding to the Wabash railroad, Track 2: cars for the CB&Q yard at Galesburg, Track 3 cars for the CB&Q yard at Beadstown, Track 5: more cars for Galesburg, Track 6: cars for West Springfield and Jefferson Street. The yellow box car in the far distance is on Track 7, which is the Sangamon Canning track, one of CB&Q's principle customers in Springfield.
- And to make matters worse, an Extra freight rolls up to the yard limits...
That was the end of the first part of the session, or "1st trick" (early shift). It took about two hours to run all these trains and by then I was gasping for a brew! I will continue this sequence in another post.
Cheers,
