Stories
An informal collection of remembrances
Every once in a while, someone will discover this site while "surfing" the web. Seeing it seems to bring back memories for many of the railroad and how it related to days gone by. I felt that it might be fun to hear some of these. Some are from folks who grew up in the area. Some are from former employees. Some are from people who just like to watch trains roll by. If you have a story to share, please consider emailing me. You'd be surprised at how many folks like reading them. All stories are told in their own words.
I'll just simply post them for now. Later, I'll try to organize them into categories. I'll also try to supplement them with "key words" that you can click on to see a picture of the topic being discussed.
When I was a kid in grade school, my brothers and sister and I were required to attend Sunday school. (Never mind that my Dad would rather play golf than go to church.) We attended the First Christian Church at the corner of Broad and North St., one block north of the ATSF passenger depot. When the weather would turn nice, my brother Bill and I would sometimes sneak out of Sunday school and walk down to the tracks to watch the trains go by. What is now the 4L Plaza Shopping Center, used to be the old Kroger Grocery Store. As kids, we were given an allowance of 15 cents with the stipulation that 5 cents would go towards our church "offering" and we would get to keep a dime. Nowwwww, back in those days, 16 cents could get you an ice cream sandwich at Kroger's (15 cents for the sandwich; 1 cent for the sales tax) so we had to make sure that we ditched Sunday school before they sent around the offering plate. (I hope I don't burn in Hell for this.) We'd either look for pennies in the parking lot, or if we got lucky find a pop bottle, and get the 2 cents deposit for it. (If we didn't have any luck, we could always sneak around back to the loading dock and pilfer a pop bottle that had already been turned in and was waiting to be picked up by the bottler (Again, I hope I don't burn in Hell for that, too.) We would get our ice cream sandwiches and walk down by the tracks and wait for trains. We would pass the time by seeing who could throw a rock furthest into Cedar Creek (actually Cedar Fork) and hit the water, not the cement embankment. Once, we lost track of the time and when Mom came to pick us up at the predetermined meeting place, we were not there. She drove around the block and saw us walking up North Broad St. from the tracks and immediately knew what we had done. BUSTED!!! Our punishment was that we had to walk the 16 blocks home (a long walk for a 10 year old kid). She never mentioned it to Dad, though. I'd hate to think what would have happened had she did. Mom was pretty cool. But we didn't tell her about the ice cream sandwiches. Didn't want to push our luck!
-- Submitted by Randall G.
My grandfather was a fireman and engineer for the Q, along with BN, Amtrak. All out of Galesburg. He worked for the railroad for 40 years, and his father as well. I have alot of great memories of watching grandpa come in or go out, and walking around the old depot waiting for the Illinois Zephyr to arrive!
-- Submitted by Bob H.
As a youngster in the 1940s, my mother would take me from Freeport, Illinois to Adams County, Illinois to visit her family in a tiny town not too far from Quincy. We took the Illinois Central from Freeport to Mendota, IL, then took the C B & Q to Galesburg, where we hopped aboard one of the old gasoline-powered Toonerville Trolleys for Adams County. I spent many hours in the old Burlington Depot in Galesburg, with its great brick circle drive and what had to be the largest urinals in the state of Illinois. I miss it very much.
-- Submitted by Don D.
I grew up in Mt. Sterling, IL (30 miles south of Macomb). Although not on the Q, I saw it plenty in nearby towns of Quincy, Jacksonville, Rushville, Beardstown, etc. My maternal grandparents lived on a farm near Buda, so on car rides to the farm we'd pass through several Q towns. Once at 5, my mom, brother & I took the Kansas City Zephyr from Macomb to Kewanee to meet my grandparents. Neponset is still the ancestral town of the maternal side of my family. My folks have lived in Princeton since 1983 (Princeton's Darius Miller Park by the depot & caboose, er, waycar, is named after a former Q president). I was just in Neponset on Sunday for my grandpa's 90th birthday. He can see the mainline from his dining room window.
-- Submitted by Bill H.
I grew up in Galesburg, during the 70's, I lived on fifth street. Me and all of my friends basically lived on the fourth street bridge. My farther worked for the Q then BN for 42 years, as his farther did and my mothers farther did also. By the time I graduated from high school, 1982, there was no jobs to be had. So I found myself chasing my other hobby, cars. I have allot of family and friends that still live in Galesburg today. We make at least two trips a year.
-- Submitted by John T.
If Galesburg is on the ATSF main line, I'm sure I've been through there a few times. The first time (and perhaps my all-time favorite train trip) was in 1961. W took our family vacation out west. GTW overnight sleeper to Chicago. ATSF Grand Canyon to LA. Second morning we awoke to find our train parked next to the Canyon. Spent the day seeing the sights there and continued West in the evening. Visited Disneyland etc. in LA (I was 11 years old). Took SP up the coast, stopping for 3 days in SF and 2 days each in Portland and Seattle. Returned on Empire Builder to Chicago & GTW to B'ham. I have a CB&Q calendar picture I've always liked. It hung forever in the basement bathroom at my grandmother's house.
--Submitted by Tom V.
I GREW UP IN GALESBURG IN THE EARLY 1970'S. I WAS AN AVID YOUNG RAILFAN. I SPENT MANY HOURS AT THE OLD DEPOT WATCHING TRAINS. IT WAS MY FAVORITE HANGOUT. I WOULD RIDE MY BICYCLE ALL OVER TOWN TO WATCH TRAINS, MOSTLY BN TRAINS. I DID NOT REALLY LIKE THE SANTA FE AND I STILL DON'T. THEY WERE NEVER AS INTERESTING AS THE BN WAS. I WOULD ALSO ENJOY SPENDING TIME ON THE FOURTH STREET BRIDGE WATCHING THE MANY TRAINS MOVING UNDER IT. YOU COULD PARK YOU BIKE RIGHT OVER THE TOP OF THE SD-45'S PUMPING AIR ON A OUTBOUND TRAIN AND FEEL THE HEAT OF THE ENGINES BELOW !!!! IT WAS A GREAT WAY TO GROW UP. I WISH I COULD GO BACK. ONE OF THE WORST DAYS IN MY LIFE WAS WHEN THEY TORE DOWN THE OLD DEPOT. HOW I WISH THEY COULD HAVE SAVED IT!!!! IT'S TOO BAD THEY TORE IT ALL DOWN BEFORE THEY REALIZED IT HAD SOME HISTORIC VALUE. IT WOULD BE GREAT TO SEE THE OLD DEPOT CONVERTED TO AN ANTIQUE MALL OR A RESTAURANT. IT'S TOO LATE NOW. I HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO GALESBURG AND THEY JUST KEEP TEARING IT UP!!! WATCHING A SANTA FE ENGINE CROSS MAIN STREET IS ALMOST ENOUGH TO MAKE MY STOMACH TURN !!!! I AM A BN MAN ALL THE WAY. IN THE LATER 1970'S I HAD BE-FRIENDED A BN ENGINEER IN GALESBURG AND WAS TREATED TO MANY TRAIN RIDES. I ONCE RODE A TRAIN FROM SAVANNAH TO GALESBURG AND WOULD OFTEN RIDE THE POWER FOR AN OUTBOUND FROM THE ROUNDHOUSE TO THE TRAIN AND GET OFF AT THE DEPOT WHEN THE TRAIN WAS LEAVING TOWN. I ALSO GOT TO RIDE SWITCH ENGINES MANY TIMES AND WOULD OFTEN PULL PINS ON THE CARS AS THEY WENT OVER THE HUMP. I ALSO ATTENDED THE FIRST RAILROAD DAYS IN 1974 I BELIEVE IT WAS, AND WAS A MEMBER OF THE EXPLORER SCOUT GROUP SPONSORED BY THE BN THAT WORKED ON MANY RAILROAD DAYS PROJECTS. GALESBURG WAS INDEED ONE OF THE GREATEST RAILROAD PLACES TO BE. THERE WERE ALWAYS TRAINS TO WATCH. YOU DID NOT GO HOME BECAUSE THERE WERE NO TRAINS, YOU LEFT BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO TIRED TO WATCH THEM ANYMORE!!!!
-- Submitted by Bill N.
I worked for the BN in Galesburg from 1984 to 1989 and went through the transition from the old yard to the new. My least fond memory of the old yard office was the bugs that would fall out of the ceiling tiles as you sat at your desk at night. By 1984, everything about that yard was worn out..... yard derailments were a daily occurrence.
-- Submitted by Steve R.
Reading your site reminded me of a trip I took years ago with a friend from Milwaukee. It was just a two day trip but we left Milwaukee early on the morning of Oct 13,1963. First stop was Bensonville where we photographed the 0-6-0 on display. Next came Eola, Aurora, Joliet, Peoria, Farmington (Midland Electric Coal Co, Ex M&StL 0-6-0's), Galesburg. Stayed in Knox overnight. Went into Galesburg that night and photographed the 9908 sitting in the roundhouse (page 19, Burlington Northern and its Heritage). Also photographed the 4978 sitting next to the roundhouse, then over for night shots of the 3006 on display. Next morning we photographed the 5620 sitting on the storage tracks, along with a Center cab in the Roundhouse (this became BN #1 I think) Took off for Sterling, Illinois to watch some scrapping of one of the Q's 2-10-4 Colorado type, and some GTW steam power. We packed a lot of fanning into that two day trip.
-- Submitted by Bob B
I came across your site while looking for depot pictures and was quite pleased with all the work you've done. I especially liked the pictures of the old depot. One of them is captioned that it is a shot from the watchmans shanty on the signal tower east of the depot. The shanty was for the gate keeper. I worked this job while going to school in 1967-68. My father had been transfered there as Superintendent in 67 although we had lived in Galesburg on two earlier occasions. At that time you climbed a circular stair case to the shanty which contained two big throw levers mounted on the floor to drop the gates on the north side of Mulberry street crossing which ran directly under the tower. There were also several electric levers that operated the gates on the south side and the gates at Pearl street and Main. Westbound trains activated a "occupancy" bell when they aproached so you could get Pearl and Main down. If you were lucky Seminary Street tower would let you know when an eatbound was pulling. I left the job in late January 68 to return to school. I trained my replacement who I later found out didn't like the job and got some one else to take it whom he trained. Some time in early 68 (if I have my dates correct) this last guy didn't get the gates at Mulberry lowered for a slow freight pulling past Seminary street tower which ran into a truck (at slow speed luckily) which was pushed into the south leg of the signal tower which then caused the towert to topple over with shanty and gatekeeper. My folks sent me the newspaper clipping and pictures at school. Perhaps you can find them in the newspapers archives. The gate keeper survived and I met him the next year when we both were working the section gang at Galesburg. They replaced the signal tower but built a new gatekeepers shanty just a little north and east of the north leg of the tower. I worked there a few times later on when they didn't have any one else - I left Galesburg in 1970. I hope this is of some use to you in your preserving the history of Galesburg Railroading. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
-- Submitted by Greg M.
I stumbled upon your Galesburg site this evening while looking at train sites and thought it was wonderful. I am 19 years old and attend the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, but I have always loved Galesburg. I have many fond memories of watching trains in the depot with great uncles and grandparents among others in my family. My great grandfather and his father and brothers were all Q workers and lived in and around Galesburg, so I have a strong family connection to the area. Well, I should go study for mid terms! Thank you for the site, it is very fun to know other people like Galesburg as much as I do!
-- Submitted by Kevin O.
In one photo of Kewanee you show the former crossing into the "Boiler Shop". That crossing was into the Kewanee Boiler Corp. main plant. My Grandparents (Etta and Harold Paxton) used to run a restaurant right at that crossing called Paxton's Cafe. Boiler workers would cross there everyday for lunch. The CB&Q had these neat signal lights that swung back and forth with a single red light. However the casings were different on most of them. I grew up near the east end of town and used to walk the CB&Q into town. Heading west, there used to be a three track spur that serviced the Woolworth factory that is now long gone (so is the track!). I remember in the summer of 1968 there was a massive derailment at the Woolworth siding that took over a week to clean up. As you got into town, there was the main switch yard with sidings on both sides. I still remember an ice house near the yard where there were bright orange colored wooden box cars on the side tracks. The line then curved going west out of town past the Boiler and then past Kewanee Machinery which had the last side track before the line headed out of town past the west end cross-over. I used to climb the east end cross-over at about 7:00pm every night to wait for the westbound California Zephyr. There were actually two Amtak's headed west during the evening. As a kid that got me interested in model railroads and as you probably know I have spent more money on that than I care to admit! Thanks for letting me relive some REAL good memories!
-- Submitted by Douglas D.
My name is Maury R. and I am from Galesburg but am currently living in south Florida. I saw a picture(#4) on your website and you were wanting to know if it was the Kansas City Zephyr. Yes it is. It looks like it is south bound out of Galesburg bound for Quincy, Ill and on down to Kansas City,Mo. My dad, Guy R., was the Trainman on that train. We lived in Quincy and my dad worked the Zephyr between Quincy and Galesburg from the late 50's until his retirement in 1965. There were actually four train's that ran between Chicago and Kansas City. The train in the picture is #35. At August,IL she would pull on to the siding and meet her sister train #36 which was northbound. The other trains were #56 northbound to Chicago which ran in the early morning hours and #55 which ran southbound to Kansas City. Like #35 & #36, these trains would meet in Augusta,IL. My dad worked #56 to Galesburg. The KCZ was never a very long train. Although in the late 50's she did pull a dining car. Train #56 would sometimes pull a dining car plus a sleeper. Passengers on #35 from Chicago would change trains in Quincy for Hannibal and St Louis. The Zephyr would continue on to Kansas City. In the late 60's The Kansas City Zephyr stopped running. The train from Chicago still ran as #35 but went only as far as Quincy. It would turn around in Quincy and head back to Chicago. At first The Zephyr came from Chicago on its own. Later in the early 60's it arrived in Galesburg on the rear on another train. I believe the train was #5. In Galesburg the Zephyr would be switched to another track and then went on to Kansas City.
--Submitted by Maury R.
I found your web site while planning a trip to Galesburg with my family. My husband and I have 3-year old twin boys who love trains. For a fun family trip we were crazy enough to take them on an actual Amtrak ride. We took a short trip on the California Zephyr. We had a great trip and especially enjoyed Peck park, which we would not have known about without your information on your web site. We saw nine trains in the hour we were there, enjoyed chatting with a couple of real live and friendly rail fans (the first ones we have met who are not in preschool), and probably messed up some railfans' pictures by standing in the way. Anyway, it was a big thrill for the boys, and we parents will have to admit that we enjoyed it too. We also enjoyed the views from the bridges over the train yard and the sights at the Amtrak station. Thank you for your informative web site.
--Submitted by Laurie F.
I'm a recovering CB&Q operator - currently working for the Big New Santa Flush Railway at Galesburg, Illinois at the illustrious hump tower. Back in the 70's and 80's I was on the Burlington Northern Community Relations Committee, where the Idea of Railroad Days was established. The actual beginning was a tour of the roundhouse on South Seminary Street in Galesburg. I was a clerk at the diesel pit (locomotive service tracks) in a small white trailer near the fourth street bridge. Looking at your photo on the opening of your web site - the trailer would have been located across from the black diesel fuel tank cars in the picture east of the fuel storage tanks. The large tank north of these fuel tanks and south of the roundhouse/turntable is the "water" tank - water supplied from Lake Bracken, a lake formerly owned by the RR to supply water for the steam engines. The hostlers worked out of an old boxcar sitting on the ground across from the tank cars to the east of the diesel pit service track. The tour of the roundhouse was expanded in later years to what had become railroad days, or what we later called railroad daze. Yardmaster Dean Worley chaired the committee and used the annual festival to educate the public on the safety issues that surrounded railroading. Electrician Dick Zost and I built a locomotive control stand and traction motor display that allowed the public to operate the traction motor wheel set like an engineer would run a locomotive. We built a plexiglass gearbox to cover the pinnion gear so that it was safe for the public to watch the huge gears while the wheel turned. Later - the crowds (in excess of 45,000 in two days) scared the hell out of the railroad and created a bit of a traffic jam at the depot for Chicago and LaCrosse trains. The best tour ever was the year we toured the yards on flat cars outfitted at the Rip Track with wooden bench seats. These cars were hauled through the yard with an ol-switch engine. Kinda neat when the ol'girl spit a little oil and water on the passengers! All in good fun. After the Frisco merger management killed RR involvement and disolved the committee to kill the effort at it's roots. The untimley passing of Dean Worley also assisted in their success in killing the event. The show was grand. The D257 derrick, WT-101 wrecking truck, material department tractor trailers, locomotive on diplay, suburban cars and locomotive touring the yard, Amtrack cars and locomotive display, piston and liner display from an EMD diesel, spike driving contest, GE locomotive factory display - it took two days just to see it all. The employee involvement and the public response overwhelmed management. The show was bigger, better attended and more fun than the events at Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Cloud.
--Submitted by Bob M.
I just ran on to your site and I like it very much! I love watching/camcording/loging trains at Peck park.10 days ago I saw 23 trains there in 4 hours and 46 minutes. Today I saw 42 trains there in 6 hours. There were 10 double headers [2 trains going by at the same time on the same double line or a train going across the top of the overpass while one was going under the overpass at the same time], and I counted a total of 2,973 cars total that made up those 42 trains. I live in Davenport,Iowa. Since april 26,2003 there have only been 18 Saturdays that I have not come to Galesburg. I like to give peck park as much attention as I have the reasources to, because this place is to good to keep a to my self. I have been to Hawaii,The Dominican Republic,Cananda,Puerto Rico, Colorado, and places in New Mexico[Abo Canyon a rail line that snakes thru the rugged land down there], but I will take a day in Galesburg ANY day over those places! Peck park offers the higest volume of traffic because you have 5 tracks that meet at one spot at the Lincoln Street Overpass. I have taken 9 Amtrak train rides from Galesburg [8 to Denver, and 1 to Santa Fe New Mexico] all relating to seeing/ being on trains. Please give this great place the justice it deserves and help me get this place noticed. Galesburg is a nice place with Lake Story, and good eating places, and a mall as well. In my dreams I want 20/20 or Date Line or some body to do a report on this place, or even a magazine of some kind to do it. I have met 5 railbuffs there in the last 6 months and we e mail each other and we hang around there. Today I saw 4 of those people at Peck Park. It was a good day socially and train wise.
--Submitted October 13 2004 by Mike M.
Bill (Franckey) and I worked together when he was working as a "hostler" at the old diesel pit south of the Seminary Street roundhouse. Bill's Dad was an engineer on the road at that time. Bill wanted to be just like Dad and he served his apprenticeship well at the ol'pit. In his book, the picture of "Galesburg Looking South 1980", I'm the fat guy on the bottom row right. John Hagrelius is the grizzly general foreman third from the right(he wanted us to think he was tough!) - with Harlo Carlson the diesel pit clerk left of John. Those were the best of the best in people to work with and to work for. When I took that picture - we tried to fashion the photo after the old photos from the 1930's era. A fellow from the material department stood on a switch engine and pushed the shutter botton. The old steam engine water tanks are in the very right edge of the photo with the coal shoot in the rear left. Those were the good old days. Employees were an asset and you couldn't wait to get to work. Some of those folks are gone now and it's tough not to feel the tremondous loss after so many sooty, oily, dusty and dirty days together. We always went home with a smile and returned the same way the next day. Without John's "OK" that picture would have never happened - He bought himself a little piece of history with that one. All those fellows in the picture that are still around are the same great guys they always were. We even had the first two women hostlers (later engineers) on the ol' Burlington Northern. The historical group that gathered this year (2004) got a tour of the yard in busses just as they did at railroad days. Someday, I hope the BNSF will buy back into the full railroad days theme and again make the show a safety education for the public. That education did more to limit liability than their withdrawl ever will. Politics, everywhere politics! The steam engines facinated me. The size alone of the wheels was pretty scarry. I had a high school friend that spent his summers chasing steam engines around the country - I kind of thought he was a little strange. But he did talk me into taking a job with the old "Q" as a agent-operator in 1967. In 1973 my wife and I moved from my job at Cicero to Galesburg where I took a job as a clerk. The agent/operator work was dying fast with all the new "CTC" centralized traffic control work being done. We watched our jobs dry up as the signal gangs tied the rails together with little wires spotwelded at each joint. As this work moved west from Chicago, our jobs went south. Some work such as Seminary tower in Galesburg and branch and main lines that were in "dark" territory remained. In 1971 I took a job as a clerk at Cicero and said the hell with this moving back to Galesburg in 1973. I loved the pace and the people compared to Chicago, even though I was born and raised there. The 4960 and 5632 were still at Galesburg and Chicago respectively. I remember seeing the 4960 in the south end of the roundhouse sitting there dead. Boiler full of water, tender full of fuel, waiting for the spring floods along the Mississippi on the main line north. In the spring of 1974 they fired her up and I walked down to see what all the smoke was. When the engineer cracked the throttle and those damn wheels spun, hell I thought what am I doing here and I ran for it! In the next few seconds the 4960 shot out of the stall south knocking the doors open, stopping short of the turntable pit with an emergency brake application. This all gave new meaning to the word "thunder". I now understood my friends facination with steam power. Other more experienced engineers would shake the building with the opening of the throttle, yet never move an inch, filling the roundhouse with thick grey and black smoke, then gently rolling out on the turntable. They would slowly turn on the table constantly watching the "house" to see how many stalls had smoke pouring out! Then gently rolling off the turntable only to crack the throttle again shaking the whole neighborhood. Quite a show. There were a lot of brick wall repairs on the east side of the roundhouse where the engines knocked holes in the walls after they knocked their fire into the " clinker " pit. A little expertise was well advised on such low steam pressure.
-- Submitted by Bob M.
MORE TO FOLLOW...