Mendota, ILL

A very nice layout depicting Mendota in the steam era plus all of HO Burlington modeler Dave Beck's steam locomotives are on display in the museum. Mendota was always a great railroad town, what with the old wooden tower which controlled passage of CB&Q/IC/Milw trains, the Q's big coaling tower on the east side of town, and Burlington's small roundhouse and turntable adjacent to the coaling tower. Heck, Mendota's facilities were complete with even a brothel near the tower, for which the "employees" would come in on the Galesburg Local, and stay the week!

Nice looking RR museum presentation.   So that's where that Milwaukee branch line combine ended up!  Great to see it preserved this way.  There were only a limited number of those cars built, by the Milwaukee Road itself, and this one is part of the 1938 series.  Note the open platforms on a "streamlined" lightweight car.  They were placed on freight trains as an accommodation for a few passengers.  Wish I could find, or build, a model of one of these in "0" gauge.

Paul Fischer

Nice looking RR museum presentation.   So that's where that Milwaukee branch line combine ended up!  Great to see it preserved this way.  There were only a limited number of those cars built, by the Milwaukee Road itself, and this one is part of the 1938 series.  Note the open platforms on a "streamlined" lightweight car.  They were placed on freight trains as an accommodation for a few passengers.  The open platforms wasn't for the comfort of passengers;  It was for the crews who were using the car as a caboose.   Wish I could find, or build, a model of one of these in "0" gauge.

Paul Fischer

Note that the Milw branchline combine did not have steam lines.  It was usually behind a string of freight cars. It burned honest to gosh coal, in a stove !

What, no photos of the CB&Q O1a #4978?  Sunset/3rd Rail will be offering an O-Scale model of that locomotive, late this year (check their website to reserve one).

Mark:  Not only coal stoves, but opening windows instead of A/C and oil or Pinsch lights for night time!  Only streamline cars so built and the "Road" had about 30 of them in three different styles:  The first were smooth side cars, built in 1935 and were 10 combination baggage-passenger, the next 10 were built in 1938, had rib-sides and a similar configuration, and finally the last group included a small postal or RPO compartment ahead of the baggage compartment and replacing the front open platform.  They were a neat oddity peculiar to just the Milwaukee Road.

Hot:  Looking forward to that 01a model.   Isn't that the same class that the #4960 is?  Maybe they could offer another version with the modern front end that the engine now has.   I wish I could have talked Scott into doing more small/medium sized engines, including some from the Milwaukee but couldn't get much interest.

Paul Fischer

fisch330 posted:

Hot:  Looking forward to that 01a model.   Isn't that the same class that the #4960 is?

Yes, however other O1a class locomotives, like #4960 were equipped with the Worthington BL type Feedwater System, while #4978 has the Elesco Feedwater System.

 Maybe they could offer another version with the modern front end that the engine now has.

Absolutely NOT!  Poor #4960 no longer represents the CB&Q O1a class of 2-8-2s. Scott will. however be offering #4960 with the slope sides tender coal bunker, to represent her CB&Q 1960s era excursion service.

  I wish I could have talked Scott into doing more small/medium sized engines, including some from the Milwaukee but couldn't get much interest.

Paul Fischer

 

It's a great place to watch trains too.

There was an additional smokebox on some of the O1a's........the L&B front end  (lignite & bituminous burning engines - the extended smokebox was for additional netting to capture the sparks that lignite produced). The L&B O1a's worked almost exclusively in "Lines West" (west of the Missouri R). A few came east in the last years of steam operation (#'s 4976 and 5090 were examples)

Addendum:  the sloped side sheets mentioned above are an indication of how the Burlington continued to invest in their steam power even in the last years. The sloped coal sheets on the O1a's were for switching visibility and were modified in about 1954-55. The O1a's switched the big yards in Galesburg and Lincoln, handled way freight duties in terminals such as Mendota (a friend passing through Mendota in the summer of 1957 observed two O1a's in the Mendota house) and mine runs on the Beardstown Division, particularly out of Herrin Jct., IL. All of that activity required rear visibility. Additionally, the Burlington added Mars lights to virtually all their Modern steam road power about 1953.  This investment activity was occuring while the New York Central was stripping their steam locomotives of steam dome covers and cylinder covers, for dubious economic purposes.