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evangeline.higginsParticipant
Bill, I really enjoyed your article, “The Last Pullmans”. It really brought back memories of all my train trips. (I am 80.) My Dad and Granddad both worked for the MP so everywhere we went was on the train. I was born in St. Louis, (Maplewood) and we began traveling by train before I can even remember. We lived all over the country from Detroit to El Paso.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantBill, You may have already seen these photos but if not here is what I found:
Route of the Eagles by Greg Stout; Pages 76 and 78.
Missouri Pacific Passenger Trains by Patrick Dorin; Page 32.
Bill
evangeline.higginsParticipantBill, I have the Life Like model of the 7100. The doors are modeled flush so I don’t know how they opened. The doors are 5′ wide and about 5’3” high. I will look to see if I have a photo of it with the door open. The thing runs like a dream and coasts forever when you kill the power.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantPat, The closest to a 2000 series steam engine were the 2100 and 2200 4-8-4’s. They were all twentieth century engines. Could have been one in the nineteenth century but I have nothing in my rosters that show that. T & P E7’s had a 2000 series but they only had 10 so no 2016.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantDean, I have one of those Trust Plates that I picked up at a train show somewhere. It is stainless steel, 7″ X 26″ X .050″ thick. No idea what engine it came off of. I have a number of photos of MP diesels in blue. A couple show them mounted on the side sill on the engineers side at the rear of the locomotive. Many just have a place where you can tell that it was removed. Just a rectangular place on the side sill with no paint. I can take a photo of the plate and post if it will help.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantI attended my second MPHS annual meet in 1987. It was held in Kansas City. On my return I drove down to Paris, Arkansas to see if there was still a reported MP steam engine there. It took a while to find it but MP 2522 was sitting there in a park next to a school and it was in the clear with no fence or other obstacles in the way. I spent a whole day climbing all over it and shooting photos of everything. I had two cameras with me, a Canon AT-1 loaded with Kodachrome 64 slide film and the other my daughters Nikon loaded with 400 Kodacolor print film. I shot 49 color slides, 151 color prints and after I used up all of my color print film I stopped and found a store and bought a few rolls of B X W and shot all of them. I don’t think I missed a single rivet on that dude. No one said a word about me climbing all over the thing and I still think that was one of the best days I ever had around a steam engine. I spent so much time there that I had to spend the night in Paris as it got too late to get back on the road.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantKevin, Thanks for clearing this up. I have been struggling with this issue for a week. I have seen two photos and both appear to have the spark arresters staggered side to side. Your explanation makes sense now. A really interesting optical illusion!
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantI have a newspaper clipping from the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate dated Tuesday, 6-21-55 that was in my Dad’s personal effects. The article states that the T & P Railroad would soon begin work on a 125 foot lift span at Morley, LA. The lift bridge would be constructed on dry land but situated such that it would span the soon to be dug completion of the Port Allen Indian Village Cutoff Canal. Bids for the canal work were to be opened on July 15th. I was hoping to find a clipping relating to the accident but have not found one.
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantThe photo of MP 394 (ex T & P 1139) appears to my eyes to have staggered spark arresters. It may be an optical illusion as the arresters may be at different heights. Does anyone have an overhead shot of one of these GP9’s that shows the layout of the spark arresters on units with dynamic brakes?
Bill Herbert
evangeline.higginsParticipantI remember the September 1973 T & P wreck at Morley Bridge well. I was working at Dow Chemical at Plaquemine, La at the time. I got the news from my Dad who was Port Director at the Port of Baton Rouge. He had received a call from the T & P superintendent at Addis to inquire if he could make arrangements to have all the damaged equipment move across the Port of Baton Rouge dock. My dad was an old MP guy and under stood well the problem that the Morley Bridge accident presented to the T & P. He worked out a solution for the T & P. Cranes at the crash site lifted the two locomotives and all the cars and loaded them on barges. The barges were then towed to the Port Allen lock and after passing through into the Mississippi River proceeded to the dock at the Port of BR. There the locomotives and cars were again raised by cranes and loaded onto flat cars for movement by the T & P. Years later, (1989), when I transferred to the Dow Railroad Department I remember talking to (by then UP) crews who remembered the wreck. The story I remember was that there had been a power failure early that September morning that affected the movement of the lift bridge and the signals. The bridge was up and the counterweights were down and the bridge tender could not lower the span. The train crashed through the counter weight destroying the locomotives and putting a number of cars into the Intracoastal Canal, as well as killing the two crewmen in the cab of the lead locomotive. The story I got was that one of them was a young guy on his first official run. They also told me that the bridge tender blamed himself and never got over the incident. Looking back I wish I had gone to the port and photographed the equipment being transferred from the barges, up and over the Dock, and on to the flat cars. Would have made a great Eagle article! But a horrible tragedy.
Bill Herbert
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