Giving it all they've got
Ever since my first visit to the quad cities I’ve wanted to catch a train on the former Milwaukee Road trestle in East Davenport. The Eldridge branch is only currently served by CP local BD70 which I hadn’t been fortunate enough to catch going there before. However on my last trip to the Quads I happened to be in the right place at the right time to be able to take advantage of information gleaned from the radio that BD70 was heading that way.
As it turned out, this day the job had a GP40-3 and GP38-2 combo for power on the point of 26 loaded hoppers. The power wasn’t sufficient for the grade up the hill from the river and they started slowing considerably as they dug into the grade on the bridge over Rt 67. They stalled out over the road which began a more than 20 minute ordeal for the crew as they’d roll back a little, take a run at it and gain maybe 15-20 feet at a time until they got to a point where they gave up and called for help.
A utility man from the nearby yard showed up to tie down the rear 10 cars which weren’t on the bridge yet and cut those off. Once that was done they were able to get under way again and the head end made it clear of the bridge and a little further up the grade before stalling out yet again with the engineer complaining about the power he got stuck with this day. This time the conductor was able to walk back and cut off the rear 6 cars leaving the two geeps with just 10 cars which they were finally able to get over the top of the grade.
This shot shows them in the middle of repeated runs at the grade before they called for help. In the background crossing the Mississippi River you can see the Government bridge connecting Davenport with Rock Island.
East Davenport, IA 10/31/2021
Giving it all they've got
Ever since my first visit to the quad cities I’ve wanted to catch a train on the former Milwaukee Road trestle in East Davenport. The Eldridge branch is only currently served by CP local BD70 which I hadn’t been fortunate enough to catch going there before. However on my last trip to the Quads I happened to be in the right place at the right time to be able to take advantage of information gleaned from the radio that BD70 was heading that way.
As it turned out, this day the job had a GP40-3 and GP38-2 combo for power on the point of 26 loaded hoppers. The power wasn’t sufficient for the grade up the hill from the river and they started slowing considerably as they dug into the grade on the bridge over Rt 67. They stalled out over the road which began a more than 20 minute ordeal for the crew as they’d roll back a little, take a run at it and gain maybe 15-20 feet at a time until they got to a point where they gave up and called for help.
A utility man from the nearby yard showed up to tie down the rear 10 cars which weren’t on the bridge yet and cut those off. Once that was done they were able to get under way again and the head end made it clear of the bridge and a little further up the grade before stalling out yet again with the engineer complaining about the power he got stuck with this day. This time the conductor was able to walk back and cut off the rear 6 cars leaving the two geeps with just 10 cars which they were finally able to get over the top of the grade.
This shot shows them in the middle of repeated runs at the grade before they called for help. In the background crossing the Mississippi River you can see the Government bridge connecting Davenport with Rock Island.
East Davenport, IA 10/31/2021